UK unable to deport Al Qaeda preacher

Britain is unable to deport a radical Al Qaeda preacher who has praised the 2005 July 7 London bombings in the past and allegedly inspired the group linked to the recent Tunisian beach attacks, a media report said today.
Hani al-Sibai, an Egyptian, receives thousands of pounds in UK welfare benefits and lives in a large west London house owned by a housing association.
He is alleged to have played a part in the radicalisation of young men in the area, including Mohammed Emwazi, the Islamic State (ISIS) killer known as "Jihadi John".
The 54-year-old has been resident in Britain since the mid-1990s when he fled Egypt, where he was wanted as a suspected member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group set up by Ayman al-Zawahiri, the Al Qaeda leader.

A number of attempts to deport Sibai have been made but have failed because he has argued that it would be a breach of human rights law to send him to Egypt, where there is a strong likelihood that he would face torture.
He is monitored by British security services and is understood to have faced a clampdown on his media and internet activities, according to 'The Times'.

Since September 2005, Sibai has been listed on the UN Security Council list of individuals linked to Al Qaeda and described as "a known figure within extremist circles".
In an interview with 'Al Jazeera' after the bombings on July 7, 2005, in which 52 people were murdered, Sibai is reported to have said: "If Al Qaeda indeed carried out this act, it is a great victory for it. It rubbed the noses of the world's eight most powerful countries in the mud."

In May 2012, Sibai delivered a video address from London to a conference organised by Ansar al-Sharia in Tunisia, the group believed to have radicalised Seifeddine Rezgui, the gunman who killed 38 people in Tunisia.
The Security Council listing reads: "He uses an internet site, and other media, to support terrorist acts or activities undertaken by Al Qaeda as well as to maintain contact with a number of supporters around the world."
The UK Home Office said it did not comment on individuals.