British Muslim organisations have welcomed Moazzam Begg’s release.
The organisation he works for, CAGE, said it had been “vindicated by the announcement that all seven charges against our Outreach Director Moazzam Begg have now been dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service due to lack of evidence.”
Asim Qureshi, Research Director of CAGE, said:
“This has been a testing time for Moazzam, his family and the Muslim community. The criminalisation of virtually any Muslim that has been to Syria has only increased in intensity, while CAGE has been attacked from every angle by a host of government agencies.
“We hope that Moazzam’s release is a sign that the government are now willing to adopt a more measured strategy in relation to anti-terrorism policy and avoid the attempt to criminalise all dissent and crush any organisation like CAGE that stands up for the rule of law and justice.
“CAGE and Moazzam have been maligned , defamed and vilified by far too many and we hope that now our calls for the protection of basic rights and innovative approaches built on dialogue to dispute resolution will now be heeded. Violence and the destruction of freedoms and liberties inherent in the War on Terror doctrine can never be the solution.
“We thank everyone for their support of Moazzam, his family and the CAGE movement.”
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IHRC
Meanwhile, the Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said the collapse of the prosecution raises urgent questions of the UK authorities and their discriminatory treatment of British Muslims.
An IHRC statement said: “Mr Begg had been in detention for the last seven months after being arrested following one of his many trips to Syria where he has been carrying out humanitarian work with refugees from the conflict there.
“This is not the first time that Mr Begg has been the victim of official abuse of power. After 9/11 he was abducted from Pakistan and held in the notorious Bagram air base in Afghanistan and the Guantanamo Bay detention facility for three years. Upon his release he filed a lawsuit against the British government for its alleged involvement in his abduction and maltreatment. The lawsuit ended with an out of court settlement believed to be a seven-figure payment made by the British government.
“Mr Begg works for the campaign group Cage which defends the rights of those affected by the US-led war on terror and which has been at the centre of a drive by the authorities to present its activities as sympathetic to terrorism.
“Today’s court order throws into question the whole basis for arresting Mr Begg in the first place. His visits to conflict torn regions in Syria were not only publicised but Mr Begg was also engaged in an ongoing dialogue with the security services about his activities.”
IHRC chair Massoud Shadjareh added: “We welcome the decision today to free Moazzam Begg. As was widely suspected there seems to have been no basis for his arrest and it does seem that as a high-profile member of the Muslim community, Mr Begg was being made an example of in order to silence activists campaigning against draconian anti-terrorism laws.
“His persecution is especially disturbing in the context of yesterday’s Conservative election manifesto pledge by the Home Secretary Theresa May to impose new curbs on organisations and individuals who are considered to hold ‘extreme’, or ‘non-British’ values.
“Under these proposed laws the likes of Mr Begg and other who outspokenly criticise western foreign policy would be criminalised for merely their beliefs and opinions”.
