The ringleader of a Rochdale child sex grooming gang cited human rights laws as he launched an appeal against deportation from Britain.
Paedophile Shabir Ahmed (63), from Windsor Road, Coppice, described by a judge as a “violent hypocritical bully”, has written to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) claiming his convictions for child sex offences were a conspiracy to “scapegoat” Muslims, his immigration tribunal heard.
Ahmed, serving 22 years in jail, was convicted in 2012 of being the ringleader of a group of Asian men who preyed on girls as young as 13 in Rochdale, plying them with drink and drugs before they were “passed around” for sex. He appeared before the first tier Immigration Tribunal at Manchester Crown Court, to appeal against the decision by Secretary of State Theresa May to strip him of British citizenship - the first stage in the deportation process.
Three judges will decide on Ahmed’s appeal as well as on appeals by three other men involved in the gang, also facing deportation.
Ahmed, who sat in the dock flanked by prison officers, told the court: “It’s become fashionable to blame everything on muslims these days.”
Vinesh Mandalia for the Home Office, said Ahmed’s appeal against depriving him of British citizenship included an appeal to the ECHR against his criminal convictions, which had been acknowledged but didn’t mean his case would be heard.
Ahmed’s appeal states his trial was “tainted” and a “miscarriage of justice” as it was “institutionally racist” using Muslims as “scapegoats”.
Mr Madalia said: “He explains simply on human rights grounds the conviction is unsafe on the basis it was a conspiracy by everyone involved. If you get involved in very serious organised crime then one of the consequences is that they will be deprived of their British citizenship.”
He said if Ahmed lost British citizenship he would remain a Pakistani national, having been born in Gujrat before coming to the UK in the Sixties.
Ahmed was given a 19-year sentence in Liverpool in May, 2012, for a string of child sex offences, including rape. He was also jailed for 22 years, to run concurrently, in July, 2012, for 30 rapes against another victim.
Presiding tribunal Judge Michael Clements reserved his decision on Ahmed and the appeal of a second man, Qari Abdul Rauf, a taxi driver and father of five released on licence last year after serving half of a six-year sentence for trafficking a 15-year-old girl for sex and for having sex her himself.
