ANKARA
The United Kingdom's Supreme Court unanimously dismissed on Tuesday an appeal by a British Muslim convert who lost his British citizenship due to alleged ties with extremism.
The seven British judges, led by Lord Carnwath, remitted the case to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission to decide the remaining issues in the appeal.
Minh Pham was born in Vietnam in 1983 and is thus a Vietnamese national. He moved to the UK with his family in 1989 and acquired British citizenship in 1995.
His British nationality was revoked by an order from the Home Office on the grounds that it would be conducive to the public good after the UK Security Service, MI5, said he was involved in "terrorism-related activities."
Pham converted to Islam at the age of 21. According to MI5 and the Home Office, he allegedly became an Islamic extremist involved with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen.
The main issue in the appeal is whether Home Secretary Theresa May is prohibited under the British Nationality Act 1981 from making an order depriving Pham of his British citizenship because it will render him stateless.
Under the British Nationality Act 1981, the Home Secretary, "may by order deprive a person of a citizenship status if... (they are) satisfied that deprivation is conducive to the public good," but "may not make (such) an order... if... (they are) satisfied that the order would make a person stateless."
The Vietnamese government maintains that Pham is not a citizen of their country, but the British government claims the Vietnamese have misunderstood their own law.
The appellant claimed that the ruling was against European law. Lord Mance said Tuesday that it was unnecessary at this stage to resolve the dispute regarding EU law.
"A national court must ultimately decide for itself what is consistent with its domestic constitutional arrangements, including what jurisdictional limits exist on the competence of EU institutions," Lord Mance said.
According to the UN Conventions on Statelessness, a stateless person is, "a person who is not considered as a national by any state under the operation of its law." Countries are not allowed to render individuals stateless.
Even if the broad interpretation suggested by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in its guidance is accepted, there is no evidence of a decision or practice of the Vietnamese government which suggests they treated the appellant as a non-national "by operation of its law," the court said.
