Denmark’s Supreme Court stripped the citizenship from Said Mansour,
a Danish-Moroccan bookseller jailed for inciting terrorism, upholding the
verdict of a lower court and potentially paving the way for his deportation to
Morocco.
Mansour, also known as the ‘Bookseller from
Brønshøj’ for his work in publishing controversial texts, is the first person
to be stripped of their Danish citizenship due to a crime.
In 2013, he was arrested and put on trial
for posting on Facebook texts and photos praising Osama bin Laden and calling
on his followers to join al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra. He was also
accused of helping publishing books by Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric who was
deported from Britain for trial at home..
The 56-year-old bookseller moved to Denmark
in 1983 and gained citizenship in 1988. He was previously convicted in another
trial in 2007 on similar charges and served three-and-half-years in jail.
One of the witnesses against Mansour was
Danish Muslim convert turned secret agent Morten Storm, who in 2012 revealed
that he has been working with the Danish intelligence agency PET and the CIA.
A 2015 Al Jazeera investigation revealed
the stories of three Danish Muslim men who alleged torture and imprisonment in
Lebanon after refusing to work as informants for PET.
Storm was sent by the Danish intelligence
to Lebanon around the time when two of the men were detained by the Lebanese
authorities. Both Denmark and Lebanon denied the allegations.
Mansour, who has retained his Moroccan
citizenship, has argued that if he gets deported to Morocco, he will face
torture and appealed the decision of a lower court to strip him of his
citizenship in 2015.
His defence lawyer told Danish television
Mansour would appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.
“He [Mansour] has a big connection to
Denmark due to his long residence in the country, and his children and
grandchildren are in the country,” the lawyer said.
“And finally, he has been punished for mere
statements, not actions.”
Denmark’s high court took the initial
decision to strip Mansour of his Danish citizenship last July, in the first
case of its kind in the country. He appealed against that ruling, arguing that
he would face torture if returned to Morocco.
It was not immediately clear after the
Supreme Court’s ruling on Wednesday whether he would serve out the remainder of
his jail term or be deported immediately to Morocco.
Denmark introduced the ability to take
strip Danish nationals of citizenship after 9/11 attacks. The Nationality Act
was amended to make it possible to deny convicted terrorists of Danish
citizenship.
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