Court of Appeal judges have blocked the deportation of a foreign organised crime boss deemed a “serious threat to public security”, reportedly because he is married to an EU migrant.
The gangster, identified only as ‘Mr A’ in reports because of the highly sensitive nature of the case against his criminal activities but described as Turkish by The Sun, is said to have been involved in “financial crimes, guns, and revenge attacks overseas”.
The deportation order against ‘Mr A’ had been upheld by the Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber, but as with many foreign criminals — such as the recent case of an Afghan terrorist who after six failed appeals was finally able to find a court willing to block his deportation so he could receive NHS treatment for the PTSD he suffered fighting for the Taliban — he was able to carry on appealing until he found judges willing to give him the answer he wanted.
“I would dismiss grounds 2 and 3 [for the appeal] but, for reasons given in the closed judgment, I would allow the appeal under ground 1 and would remit the case for re-hearing by a differently constituted panel of the [Upper Tribunal],” said judge Sir Stephen Richards, ruling alongside Lord Justice Fulford and Lady Justice Nicola Davies, in what few comments on the case the press were permitted to report.
The failure to deport the gangster, who is “living openly in the community”, according to The Telegraph, has been attributed in part to the fact he is married to an EU migrant, with the EU laws on Free Movement to which Britain remains subject making it extremely difficult to deport EU or EU-linked nationals.
“It can’t be right that being married to an EU citizen trumps being seen as a serious threat to public safety,” remarked Tory MP Tim Loughton, a member of the House of Commons select committee for Home Affairs.
“This is another extraordinary decision whereby our links to the EU mean that seriously undesirable criminals are left at liberty in the UK,” he lamented.
“Our priority will always be to keep the British public safe. While legal challenges can frustrate immediate deportation, foreign national offenders should be in no doubt of our determination to remove them,” commented a Home Office spokesman — perhaps unconvincingly, given their manifest failure to do so in the case of ‘Mr A’ and the fact the total number of foreign criminals they are managing to deport is currently in a sustained freefall.
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