IOL : Suspected terrorist's parents can stay: court

Suspected terrorist's parents can stay: court

By Xolani Mbanjwa and Alex Elissev | August 9, 2007

The Pretoria High Court has granted an urgent interim interdict against home affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula forbidding her to deport the parents of a suspected teenage terrorist who was arrested in the UK.

On Wednesday night Acting Judge Louis Visser restrained and interdicted home affairs from deporting Mohamed Patel, who is detained at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. They will return to court next week.

Patel's son, Abdul Muneem Patel, was the youngest of 11 men charged in 2006 in connection with a foiled plot to blow up aircraft flying from the Britain to the US.

The 18-year-old -- 17 at the time of his arrest -- was charged with involvement in the "liquid bomb plot" and given bail of £100,000 (about R1,44-million) by a UK court.

He was arrested on August 10, 2006 for being in possession of "terrorist material", which included a book on bomb making and a suicide note.

His father, a British citizen, and his wife, Sakina Bhamjee, arrived in Johannesburg in 2004 and have lived a quiet life in Brixton, with Patel working as a backyard mechanic.

On Sunday two home affairs officials knocked on their door and declared the couple's temporary residence permits to be illegal.

Patel was immediately taken to Lindela.

The couple's lawyer, Saleem Ebrahim, said the Patels' home had also been "unlawfully" raided and left ransacked by a team believed to be from home affairs -- for which the Patels would seek compensation.