Rapist Yaqub Ahmed organized for associates to movie pretend ISIS video
As rapist Yaqub Ahmed was handed yet one more set of deportation papers by an immigration officer, he may barely conceal his contempt: ‘I have been planning,’ he boasted. ‘I’m two steps forward.’
The motive for this boastful swagger? He had cooked up what he believed to be a crafty ruse that may get the Home Office off his again as soon as and for all.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal at the moment how, from his cell in Harmondsworth detention centre in West London, Ahmed had organized for his associates to movie a video during which they might pose as Islamic State terrorists threatening to kill him if the British Government dared to ship him again to Somalia.
Dressed in navy fatigues within the vibrant sunshine of what seems to be an African desert, one in every of two masked males is recorded studying the pretend demise menace from a torn script.
‘Lately, we heard from the media in the UK that they are bringing back a bad man called Yaqub Ahmed,’ the person says. ‘If any of those people are returned to East Africa we will target them and kill them.’
This video mysteriously appeared on Facebook simply 5 days earlier than Ahmed was on account of be deported from the UK.
Dressed in navy fatigues within the vibrant sunshine of what seems to be an African desert, one in every of two masked males is recorded studying the pretend demise
Yaqub Ahmed was one in every of a gang of rapists now behind bars. Ahmed’s cynical try to dupe officers and the courts is revealed in courtroom papers seen by the MoS
Several days later, his legal professionals mounted a recent bid to dam his deportation utilizing the movie because the central plank of their case.
Ahmed’s cynical try to dupe officers and the courts is revealed in courtroom papers seen by the MoS. Incredibly, the pretend video delayed his deportation by yet one more three years.
This extraordinary chapter within the saga started in October 2020 – virtually precisely two years after Ahmed’s deportation to Somalia was dramatically halted by a mutiny of aircraft passengers at Heathrow.
He was as soon as once more dealing with removing after shedding a judicial evaluate during which he claimed that deporting him to Somalia would breach his human rights as a result of he could be prone to taking his personal life.
Every week earlier than his deliberate removing, an immigration officer served Ahmed along with his deportation papers, and the official’s detailed notes of their change had been contained in courtroom papers.
‘They think it’s the top but it surely’s not …the combat goes on,’ Ahmed spat. ‘All this time you guys have been coming to see me, I have been planning, I already knew this was coming, I’m two steps forward. I’ll problem this by way of the courts.’
How precisely Ahmed orchestrated his deception stays unclear however the judges mentioned he has an ‘extensive worldwide network of family support’. Pictured, passengers assist get Ahmed kicked off a aircraft as he resists being deportation
On November 2, his authorized crew filed a recent case based mostly on the video, which they mentioned three Somali information web sites had reported on.
With Ahmed’s taxpayer-funded legal professionals, Wilson Solicitors, claiming it put their consumer ‘at real risk of being killed and/or facing inhuman and degrading treatment if removed’, his deportation had but once more been spectacularly derailed.
The Home Office instantly suspected the video was not what it claimed to be and requested Metropolitan Police consultants to research.
They quickly pinpointed a collection of obtrusive flaws, together with the very fact it was of a lot poorer high quality than these often related to Islamic State’s vile propaganda unit.
Nor did it show any of the phobia group’s ordinary graphics and whereas it primarily options two males in navy clothes, a 3rd man, sporting civilian garments, twice unintentionally strays into the shot.
In a damning judgment, three judges rejected the enchantment in March 2022, and dominated Ahmed had organised for a pretend video to be planted on-line to scupper his deportation.
They mentioned Ahmed’s previous behaviour, together with his refusal to simply accept his 2008 rape conviction, ‘indicates dishonesty and a willingness to mislead’, including: ‘We are left in no doubt that the video was a fabrication, manufactured at the behest of the appellant for the explicit purpose of creating a fresh claim to stay in the UK.’
His legal professionals tried to gag the MoS and fought to maintain THEIR names secret
Ronan Toal, pictured, misplaced an ‘unprecedented’ utility for anonymity together with Ahmed’s different baristers
The Mail on Sunday has scored an enormous victory for press freedom after Yaqub Ahmed’s legal professionals tried to maintain their names secret.
Three of his barristers – Ronan Toal, Ubah Dirie and Stephanie Harrison – misplaced an ‘unprecedented’ utility for anonymity that may have stopped the media from figuring out them for a 12 months.
The legal professionals, who represented Ahmed for a few of his proceedings, criticised this newspaper’s reporting of the case and mentioned they feared they had been prone to violence or being abused.
Lawyers, they argued, ought to be capable to carry out their jobs ‘without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference’.
Opposing the applying on behalf of The Mail on Sunday, barrister Jude Bunting KC warned it will create a precedent during which different legal professionals representing controversial purchasers would additionally search anonymity.
He mentioned that even in his native Northern Ireland ‘where lawyers have been killed for being lawyers’ none ever sought anonymity, even on the peak of The Troubles.
The utility was dismissed by two higher tribunal judges in December, who mentioned it will be a ‘disproportionate interference’ on this newspaper’s proper to expression and be a ‘restraint on the press’.
Dawn Alford, of the Society of Editors, final night time welcomed the MoS’s victory, saying: ‘Were it not for the vehement stance by the media, a further veil of secrecy could have been added to this case with huge ramifications.’
A separate draconian courtroom order giving Ahmed anonymity was lastly lifted this month after Sarah Palin, representing the MoS, efficiently argued that the rights of his sufferer and of the media outweighed Ahmed’s proper to privateness.
Their extraordinary judgment revealed the video was not the one proof of fakery.
Police consultants additionally discovered all three supposed information articles about Ahmed’s deportation posted on the Somali web sites had been equivalent and wrongly reported that Ahmed was ‘accused’ – not convicted – of rape and that his alleged sufferer was a lady, as an alternative of a teenage woman.
The judges mentioned these errors had been all ‘overwhelmingly favourable’ to Ahmed.
It was clear that even when planting pretend materials on-line, Ahmed refused to simply accept duty for his wicked crime.
How precisely Ahmed orchestrated his deception stays unclear however the judges mentioned he has an ‘extensive worldwide network of family support’.
But astonishingly, the tribunal’s excoriating judgment was nonetheless not the top of the story.
Ahmed appealed once more however final December that was thrown out by the higher tier immigration tribunal, and eight months later – on August 1 – Ahmed was lastly deported.
