Stripping terror suspects of British citizenship lawful

Judges at the European court of human rights (ECHR) have ruled that Prime Minister Theresa May’s policy of stripping British terror suspects of their citizenship while abroad to bar them from returning to Britain is lawful. The news comes after ECHR judges unanimously threw out a claim by a Sudan-born terror suspect who took UK citizenship in 2000 and said that depriving him of his British passport violated his right to a private and family life. The sudanese man was stripped of his passport while visiting the country, after accusations that he had travelled to Sudan via Somalia with two ‘extremist associates, where he engaged in terrorism-related activities linked to al-Shabaab’. The judges ruled that May, who was Home Secretary at the time, had ‘acted swiftly and diligently and in accordance with the law’. A Home Office spokesperson welcomed the court’s judgement: “Citizenship is a privilege not a right and it is right that the home secretary can deprive an individual of their citizenship where it is believed it is conducive to the public good to do so.”