Bosnia Begins Deportation of Ex-Fighter

Osman Mulahalilovic said police have put his client, Imad al-Husayn, known as Abu Hamza, in an immigration centre. The lawyer said deportation would contravene an order of the European Court of Human Rights as well as the country's Constitutional Court, which has accepted an appeal of part of the case.

Abu Hamza came to Bosnia in 1992 to help Bosnia's Muslims during the 1992-1995 war. He married a local woman and they have six children. He obtained citizenship in 1994 but authorities revoked it in 2001. They said he posed a threat to national security, although they revealed no evidence.

"There is no investigation, no charges, no accusations against him, just an unexplained claim that he poses a threat," Mulahalilovic told the Associated Press news agency.

He said he had informed the Human Rights Court in Strasbourg and filed a criminal complaint against an official in Bosnia's Ministry for Security, which controls the police.

Bosnia's Constitutional Court had previously accepted Mulahalilovic's claim that his client, although no longer a Bosnian citizen, had the right to be with his family, and sent the case back to a lower court for retrial.

In his appeal, Mulahalilovic listed a number of cases in which European countries could not deport people and separate them from their families, although they were criminals.

Last week Amnesty International also appealed to Bosnian authorities not to deport al-Husayn to Syria, saying he would face a serious risk of torture and other ill-treatment.