Thousands protest against deportation of Islamic fighter from Bosnia
International Herald Tribune / Associated Press - February 2, 2008

ZENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina: Up to 5,000 people protested Saturday against the government's decision to expel a Syrian native who fought on the side of Muslim Bosniaks during the 1992-95 war.

Imad al-Husini, known as Abu Hamza, was stripped of his Bosnian citizenship last year after a special commission found that naturalization procedures had been ignored in the cases of some 500 people from countries including Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Tunisia, Sudan and Russia.

Husini, the vice president of the war veterans' organization Ensarije, and the most visible former Islamic fighter in Bosnia, has led a protest against the revocation of citizenship and the expulsions.

His legal appeal was dismissed Jan. 21 and he was given two weeks to leave Bosnia voluntarily or he would be deported. His lawyers said they will bring his case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

Organizers of the rally claim Bosnia is not respecting basic human rights and say there is no legal basis for deportation since Husini has no criminal record. He has a wife and six children in Bosnia.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Bosnia was accused of granting citizenship to people who had links to international terrorism networks. Many foreign Islamic fighters came to Bosnia during the war to fight beside the Muslims here. Some married local women, obtained citizenship and remained in the country after the war.

After Sept. 11, such people were under particular scrutiny, and investigations revealed that a number of them had a dubious past and links to people suspected of being members in international terrorist networks. This prompted the government in 2001 to set up a commission to review the cases of everyone who was naturalized after Bosnia became independent in 1992.

The special commission checked more than 1,300 naturalizations. It makes recommendations to the government, which has the final say in whether to revoke citizenship.

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