UFree 'confident' of Salah acquittal

UFree, a EU-based charity representing political prisoners, claims it is ‘confident’ that Sheikh Raed Salah will not be deported from the UK.

The comments come as British courts prepare to deport Salah on charges that he entered the UK despite being served a travel ban. Since his arrest on June 28th, he has remained in British custody.

However, a statement by UFree, released today, has claimed that Salah ‘has an extremely strong case and a high probability of winning his case… in the next few weeks’. The charity’s chairman, Mohammed Hamdan, is reported to have visited Salah in prison and described his condition as ‘[in] good health and high spirits’.

Appeasement?

The arrest of Salah has proved controversial in both the UK and abroad. Theresa May, the Home Secretary, was accused of ‘incompetence’ for the failure of the UK Border Agency to prevent Salah’s entry, whilst several British newspapers have lauded his imprisonment, citing accusations of anti-semitism made against him.

Critics have condemned the move, however, describing it as ‘appease[ment] of the pro-Israeli lobby in Britain’, according to UFree itself. Al-Jazeera, the pan-Arab satellite news channel, has claimed that the arrest ‘undermines… Britain’s democratic image’.

PNN