A FORMER Afghan terrorist leader has lived in Scotland while fighting to be granted asylum in the United Kingdom, it was revealed yesterday.
Dawalat Khan Nasir, 34, was commander of an outlawed group with close links to Osama bin Laden when he fled to the West and sought refugee status.
He arrived illegally in the UK three years ago and within weeks he was refused permission to stay, b
ut a series of appeals has delayed his return to Afghanistan, and he obtained a flat in Glasgow.
Dawalat Khan Nasir claims he has well-founded fears of persecution by the Afghan authorities and members of his former group – he used its money to fund his flight.
But yesterday three judges in the Court of Session in Edinburgh dismissed his latest attempt to be afforded international protection under the Geneva Convention by remaining in the UK.
The judges said it was clear that his active involvement with the terrorist group Herzb-e-Islami Gulbuddin (HIG) had been contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, and that meant he was excluded from the Geneva Convention.
The ruling reinstates removal orders issued by the Home Office against him.
The court was told that Dawalat Khan Nasir came from the Nangarhar province and had been involved with HIG since his childhood. It was a mujahideen group founded by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar with close links to bin Laden and was a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.
He had taken over as commander when his father was killed during fighting with the international security force. However, he then used money belonging to HIG to flee Afghanistan. He travelled by plane and hidden in a lorry, and arrived in the UK in July 2006. He settled in Glasgow.
The Home Office rejected Dawalat Khan Nasir's asylum application, and the case went before the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal. It was explained by the tribunal that Hekmatyar, a warlord and former Afghan prime minister, had been designated a terrorist by the US state department for "his participation in and support for terrorist acts committed by al-Qaeda and the Taleban".
Fighting between him and the Kabul administration between 1992 and 1996 was said to have resulted in the deaths of more than 25,000 civilians.
According to the tribunal, Dawalat Khan Nasir's appointment as commander had affirmed his complicity in and support of HIG. He had fought as a commander for ten weeks and had been active in the group until he left Afghanistan.
Dawalat Khan Nasir sought leave to appeal to the Court of Session, and his application was heard by Lords Reed, Carloway and Hardie. Giving yesterday's judgment, Lord Hardie said the only issue was whether an appeal would have a real prospect of success.
Under the Geneva Convention, refugees could be afforded protection, but the convention did not apply to any person who "has been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations".
Lord Hardie said: "We are satisfied that the involvement of the applicant in HIG was such as to amount to serious reasons for considering that he has been guilty of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the UN… as a result of his involvement with HIG he is excluded from the protection of the Geneva Convention. There is accordingly no prospect of the applicant being successful in his appeal… we shall refuse leave to appeal."
The full article contains 579 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
