UK Appeals Panel Hears Challenge to Citizenship Revocation of Abu Hamza's Son

Sufean Kamal, the 31-year-old son of convicted terrorist Abu Hamza, appeared via video link from Syria last week as the Special Immigration Appeals Commission heard his challenge to the loss of his British citizenship. GB News reported that Kamal, a British-born former computer science student, fled to Syria after his father’s 2013 extradition to the United States.

He now seeks to return to Britain, where his wife and children live.

MI5 shared classified intelligence with the three-judge panel during the closed hearing. An unnamed informant identified as MT gave evidence from behind a curtain while Kamal watched the proceedings remotely. The agency had advised the Home Secretary in 2016 that Kamal had fought with terrorist groups and posed a risk of assisting UK-based Islamist extremists if allowed to return.

Kamal’s lawyers argued that the MI5 assessment was false and that stripping his citizenship violated his right to family life. They stated he had fought alongside the UK-backed Syrian Free Army against terrorist groups rather than with Al Qaeda or similar organizations. Kamal himself told the commission, “Taking away my citizenship has affected my family and me.

GB News reported that Kamal was arrested in Istanbul in 2019 while attempting to return to the UK and was held there for two years. Turkish authorities tried without success to obtain information about his activities in Syria or to deport him to Morocco, his mother’s country of origin.

Abu Hamza, who had preached at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, was sentenced to life without parole in the United States in 2014.