Shaykh Raed Salah is still in the UK pending an appeal against a highly contentious decision reached by the Immigration Tribunal in November 2011. However, one of the cases still pending in Israel which was used as evidence against him here in the UK, has been concluded in his absence and he was acquitted of all charges.

Shaykh Raed had been charged with non-compliance of a legal order in 2007 when he attended a charity dinner in Jerusalem. Israeli police claimed that it was a Hamas meeting and  attacked the guests including Shaykh Raed, who was hospitalised as a result. His lawyer stated that the court in Israel had “given its verdict, and that the attack on the Shaykh and those with  him was neither legal nor justified as the matter was completely unconnected to the Hamas Movement and there is no evidence to the contrary.”

Shaykh Raed has been in the UK since June 2011, when his one week-long visit was disrupted after Home Secretary Teresa May ordered his arrest and deportation, based on evidences  presented by the Communities Securities Trust. Despite the difficulties he has faced in remaining in Britain, he is determined to fight against the Deportation Order which he believes amounts to an infringement on the rights of all Palestinians to speak openly about what is happening to them under Israeli occupation.

Source: Friends of Al-Aqsa