UK revoked Turkish academic's visa over Hamas document found on phone
The UK government has revoked the visa of a Turkish academic working at a British university after police found a widely circulated Hamas media document on his phone during a Schedule 7 airport stop.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons and is identified in court documents only as AA, said he had been told that his visa had been cancelled during a family visit to Turkey, months after the initial stop when his phone was confiscated.
AA, who has studied and worked in the UK since 2020, is now appealing against the loss of his residency status. He says his promising academic career has been curtailed, along with his family's plans to build a life in the country.
AA had been granted a Global Talent visa and "Leave to Remain" status by the Home Office after completing a PhD recognised by his university as the best in his year in just two-and-a-half years.
He said his wife had also set up a successful business in the UK, selling items via Amazon.
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"When they took my visa, I had no idea why they took it from me. I had a global talent visa and gave me no explanation why," AA told Middle East Eye from Turkey.
"Not only has this impacted my academic and professional life, but my wife was also forced to shut down her UK-based business because she could not verify her address in the UK."
The name of AA's university and further details about the family's circumstances cannot be revealed after he was granted an anonymity order in the case.
AA was questioned by counter-terrorism police at Stansted Airport last April during a Schedule 7 stop while returning to the UK from Turkey.
Phone confiscated
Schedule 7 powers allow police and border officials to question anyone passing through airports and ports to determine if they are involved in terrorism.
The use of the powers has long been criticised by rights groups as discriminatory because they are perceived to be used disproportionately against travellers from Muslim or Asian backgrounds.
AA said he had been detained at the airport for six hours. He said police had questioned him about his academic career and later his views on Hamas, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Iran.
The police then confiscated his phone without asking him further questions and said they would return it within two working days. AA said he had received his phone four months later.
During the time his phone was confiscated, AA said he was not approached by police or asked any follow-up questions.
However, in July last year, while AA was visiting relatives in Turkey, he received an email from the Home Office informing him of the decision to revoke his visa on the grounds that his presence in the UK was not considered to be conducive to the public good.
After lodging an appeal, AA learnt the Home Office decision was made after police determined he had forwarded a Hamas media office document titled "Our Narrative: Operation Al Aqsa Flood", which explained the militant group's motives behind the 7 October attacks on Israel.
Multiple international and Israeli news outlets wrote about the document, including the Times of Israel, Jerusalem Post, Jewish Chronicle and Haaretz.
'Suppression of free speech'
Fahad Ansari, representing AA, described the government's decision to cancel his visa and his family's leave to remain status as a new low for the British government.
"The government's suppression of free speech has reached a new low whereby brilliant scientists, professionals and academics are being treated as threats to national security for simply sharing a document that provides an alternative version of events to the racist and dehumanising atrocity propaganda that had become the official narrative about October 7," Ansari told MEE.
'Counter-terrorism officers, who had the advantage of interviewing my client at the airport for six hours without a lawyer, were satisfied he had not committed any criminal offences'
- Fahad Ansari, lawyer for 'AA'
"Counter-terrorism officers, who had the advantage of interviewing my client at the airport for six hours without a lawyer, were satisfied he had not committed any criminal offences.
"That he spent the next few months in the UK without any subsequent questioning or a search of his home indicates that they did not believe that his sharing of this widely available document meant that he posed a threat to national security."
A Home Office spokesperson declined to comment due to "ongoing legal proceedings".
The case comes after an appeal court last year blocked the Home Office's decision to revoke Palestinian student Dana Abuqamar's study visa after she spoke at a pro-Palestine march in Manchester.
Judge Melanie Plimmer said the Home Office had violated Abuqamar’s human rights and her ability to practise freedom of speech by revoking her student visa.
Plimmer accepted Abuqamar's testimony that she did not support atrocities against Israeli civilians on 7 October 2023 and that her viewpoint is rooted in a belief "that Palestinians should seek their rights in a lawful and proportionate way and any resistance on their part should be grounded in law".
The judge emphasised that Abuqamar "is not an extremist" and added that she "had no clear knowledge of the role of Hamas at that stage and certainly had no intention of conveying support for Hamas or the terrorist atrocities against civilians committed in the 7 October attack".
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