Britain has revoked the citizenship of a radical Muslim cleric who applauded the September 11 attacks and was banned from preaching at a London mosque, Home Secretary David Blunkett said on Saturday.
Blunkett said he had informed Abu Hamza al-Masri his citizenship was being stripped. He is the first person targeted under new measures aimed at deporting immigrants whose words or actions are deemed to "seriously prejudice" British interests.
"I have sent him a letter withdrawing his citizenship," Blunkett told BBC radio. Masri now faces deportation.
Egyptian-born Masri, a hate figure in British tabloids that have focused on his missing eye and hook in the place of his right hand, has been vilified for applauding the September 11 attacks in the United States and the deaths of Americans and an Israeli in the crash of the space shuttle Columbia.
He was banned from preaching at the North London Central Mosque after police raided it in January in an investigation into the discovery of ricin poison. The mosque has since been closed but Masri has continued to preach in the street outside.
Masri, who lost an eye and both forearms while fighting Soviet forces in Afghanistan, has called Osama bin Laden a hero.
But Masri's lawyer, Muddassar Arani, said the cleric had not received the letter and would resist on the grounds that removal of nationality breached EU protocols on human rights.
"We will fight this all the way," she told Reuters.
Blunkett's action follows the introduction of new powers on April 1 allowing the government to strip immigrants holding dual nationality of British citizenship if they "seriously prejudice" the country's vital interests through word or deed.
But Arani said the action would leave Masri stateless because he had surrendered his Egyptian nationality "years ago."
Masri, nicknamed Dr Hook by the tabloid press, holds a British passport through marriage to a British woman.
He is suspected by the United States of links to bin Laden's al Qaeda network - charges he has denied - and is wanted in Yemen on terrorism charges.
Blunkett said the move was not made because Masri was a "big mouth" who just said silly things the government did not like.
"The evidence that would obviously have to be produced if this man appeals... would be about the way people are encouraged to take part in the jihad (Islamic holy war), they're encouraged to fight us overseas and issues of that sort."
He would not speculate on how many others the government might target under the new laws but said no one would be sent back to a country if they might face the death penalty.
"We are not starting a kind of hunt round for people...who don't warrant it. I want to deal with people who our intelligence and security services believe are a risk to us."
A record number of asylum seekers entering Britain and the recent arrests of several refugee applicants over terrorism- related cases have fueled a fractious debate over immigration.
The new measures are part of a wider plan aimed at chopping by 50 percent the number of asylum seekers arriving in Britain - more than 100,000 came last year - and stopping what the government says is an abuse of its generous benefits system.
One Muslim leader said Masri had no influence in the wider Muslim community but removing his citizenship could backfire.
"By removing his citizenship you give him publicity. Maybe it will make him a sort of hero," said Syed Aziz Pasha, Secretary General of the Union of Muslim Organisations.