Stateless because of 'extremism': UK Muslim in top court

The Vietnamese-born man, identified only as “B2”, argues that the decision by Britain’s interior minister to remove his citizenship is a breach of international law because it would leave him without a nationality.

British security services said he had received Al-Qaeda terrorist training in Yemen and posed a threat to British security.

Judges at London’s Supreme Court will hear the case following a three-year legal battle.

In 2011, Home Secretary Theresa May ordered that B2 be deprived of his British nationality on the grounds that it would be “conducive to the public good”.

The decision was taken “because the Security Services assessed that B2 was involved in terrorism related activities”, according to official court documents.

B2 was granted asylum when he moved to Britain with his parents from Hong Kong in 1989 and acquired British citizenship six years later, court papers said.

He converted to Islam aged 21 and is alleged to have become an Islamic extremist, travelling to Yemen in 2010.

“It is the assessment of the Security Service that while in Yemen B2 received terrorist training from Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,” Court of Appeal documents from a previous hearing say.

“It is also the assessment of the Security Service that B2, if at liberty, would pose an active threat to the safety and security of the United Kingdom and its inhabitants.”

The case is expected to last for two days, with a decision to be handed down at a later date.

The hearing comes as British lawmakers consider plans to ban suspected British jihadists who travel abroad to fight from re-entering Britain- AFP