Moazzam Begg’s passport was confiscated eight years ago. (Credit: Garry Knight/WikiCommons)
Harun Nasrullah
Former Guantánamo Bay detainee and Director of CAGE Outreach, Moazzam Begg, has regained the right to obtain a British passport after the document was confiscated from him eight years ago following two trips to Syria.
Begg filed a judicial review in January regarding the cancellation of his passport in 2013 and the withdrawal of another in 2021.
On May 27, Begg received correspondence from the Home Office informing him he could now apply for a passport renewal.
Begg said he was subject to a persistent harassment campaign that had deprived him of the freedom to travel for work and to visit family abroad.
“I wanted to attend my daughter’s wedding. Relatives have passed away and I have not been able to attend their funerals,” said Begg.”And, of course, the investigation work, all of that has stopped,” he added, referring to his work as outreach director for Cage, a London-based advocacy organisation focused on the impact of counterterrorism policies on Muslim communities.
Begg had previously been refused a passport following his return to the UK from Guantánamo in 2005, where he was taken in 2002 after being abducted in Pakistan and handed over to US custody in Afghanistan.
The then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, refused to issue Begg a passport. He did so based on information obtained while Begg was in US custody. He said, “There are strong grounds for believing that, on leaving the UK, [Begg] would take part in activities against the UK or allied targets.” Clarke used the Royal prerogative to refuse the passport, which had only been used thirteen times since 1947 in this way—the previous time being in 1976.
His passport was restored following a judicial review in 2009.
The campaigner travelled to Libya and Syria following the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 to investigate links between American and British intelligence agencies and security services in those countries.
His passport was confiscated after two visits to opposition-held Syria in 2012, during which time he met with rebels involved in the fight to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
He was subsequently told by the Home Office that the document had been cancelled because it was assessed he was likely to travel abroad in the future to engage in terrorist activity.
He was arrested and charged with terrorism offences in February 2014, spending seven months on remand in London’s high-security HMP Belmarsh.
However, the charges were dropped days before his trial was due to start when it emerged that Begg had travelled to Syria a second time with the knowledge and consent of MI5.
In September 2021, Begg obtained a new passport. However, the Home Office informed him three weeks later that it had been issued in error and was once again withdrawn.”This is the third time that my passport has been revoked… What is it I am guilty of?” he asked.
“I have never had a day in court, never been convicted of any crime. I have been compensated by the government for its role in my abuse. It’s well known that I have been campaigning against the role of British intelligence services in torture.”
According to the latest published figures, the government denied passports on national security grounds to 86 people between 2013 and 2018. Forty-eight of these cases were reviewed, and passports were restored to thirteen people.