Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer represented Hizb ut-Tahrir, an extremist Islamist group, in a legal challenge against Germany’s ban on the group’s activities. The Telegraph has more.
The Labour leader led a team of lawyers claiming that Berlin’s prohibition of Hizb ut-Tahrir breached the group’s rights to freedom of religion and expression.
The KC submitted an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in June 2008, a year after the Conservatives first began demanding that the Labour Government ban the group. David Cameron told the Commons that the group had called for Jews to be killed “wherever they are found”, and was “poisoning the minds of young people” – claims denied by Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Conservative MPs said the revelation raised questions about the approach Sir Keir would take to such issues in Government, including the prospect of banning specific groups such as Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Priti Patel, the former Home Secretary, said: “Hizb ut-Tahrir are an Islamist extremist group that celebrates terror attacks and seeks to establish a caliphate. That someone who aspires to be Prime Minister would go out of his way to take a case defending them is frankly beyond the pale and speaks volumes about Sir Keir’s worldview.”
Labour said Sir Keir went on to prosecute “terrorists with links to Hizb ut-Tahrir and led the first ever prosecution of al-Qaeda” as Director of Public Prosecutions, months after taking Hizb ut-Tahrir’s case. …
Conservative ministers are currently reviewing the case for banning Hizb ut-Tahrir after prominent members of the group described the October 7th massacre of Israelis as “good news”, and a march hosted by the group featured calls for “jihad”. Adam Holloway, a Conservative member of the Home Affairs Committee, said the disclosure raised questions about “what factors [Sir Keir] will take into consideration in government when it comes to making judgements about banning groups like this”.
The decision ultimately issued by the ECHR in June 2012 rejected the arguments advanced initially by Sir Keir that Germany’s ban on the group breached its human rights, and declared the application inadmissible.
Worth reading in full.
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to The Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.