Thousands sign petition to prevent Farooqi family eviction

Article published: Thursday, November 10th 2011

The family of a Longsight man convicted of terrorism have submitted a 13,000-strong petition against proposals by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to seize their home.

Five ringbinders full of signatures gathered from across the country were handed over yesterday by supporters of the Save the Family Home campaign to the CPS. A decision on whether to pursue the legally unprecedented forfeiture application for the property will be considered in London later this week, with the case expected to be heard in March.

The father of the family, Munir Farooqi, was convicted last September and given four life sentences for attempting to recruit young men to fight British soldiers in Afghanistan. The CPS is making the seizure application on the grounds that “the property in question was used to conduct the conspiracy to commit terror acts”, referring to recorded conversations between Munir and undercover officers held in the basement of the house.

The seven members of Farooqi’s family resident at the address, including two children, have not been convicted of any related offence. While the CPS argues that the family own two other properties, opponents of the move say the homes are owned and rented out by Munir Farooqi’s wife and that eviction would amount to “collective punishment”.

Munir’s son Harris Farooqi, who was himself acquitted of terrorism charges, said: “We’re innocent individuals, law abiding citizens who want to live in peace so why are you destroying our lives?”

Campaign supporters said they had received “a lot of positive feedback” from the local community, despite fears over association with Munir Farooqi’s offence. South Manchester resident Fatima Katergi told MULE how “there’s been some people who get scared because you mention the word terrorism…even within the community, people are afraid to get involved and speak out and sign petitions. I think it’s really bad that they feel apologetic and with what’s happening to the family it’s giving it a legitimacy which it shouldn’t have.”

A CPS spokesperson said: “The power to forfeit residential premises in these circumstances is a new power under the Counter Terrorism Act 2008, and before any decision is made, the forfeiture application is considered by the court and the family will be given an opportunity to be heard. The court will consider the effect of any order on the family members.”

Richard Goulding

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Comments

1. Im sorry but i have to agree on this, the man is a convicted terrorist he is responsible for spreading hate and fear in the UK and beyond and now hes come up against it and stands to lose his house then so be it. Goods and money are seized under the proceeds of crime act so why is this any different? The family clearly are not struggling and own other property (wonder if theres any tax evasion too?) Conveniently in the wifes name. Are you seriously telling me she knew nothing what was going on??? Don’t believe any of it. At the end of the day the man should not even be in this country, end of. He has no loyalty to the values and freedoms which this country holds onto. His family will be ok (although id be very surprised if they didnt know what he was involved in) I just dont buy it one bit. Who has signed this petition exactly? white lefty do gooders and members of a closed shop asian community who are shielding this man? This would be an even more worrying situation indeed and actually just serve to condone his behaviour in a roundabout way. Using the words “family home” turns it to his advantage though as its quite an emotive term where women and children will be able to garner support for his useless anti british crusade. There are obviously 13,000 either very ignorant people or openly anti british folk?….i remember the ricin plot which Kamal Borgas was involved in, in Crumpsall where a copper was killed, and another plot above a takeaway on Upper Brook street not so long ago. It just makes this story all the more worrying with this latest development. There needs to be a clear, strong message that those communities ignorantly or actively harbouring terrorists must be severly dealt with which will serve to reassure the whole community of Manchester that theres no place for terrorists to hide.

   Comment by Joanne Harworth on November 21, 2011 at 4:00 pm

2. Joann Harworth clearly doesn’t know what she’s talking about, both the cases she mentions above, the ricin plot and the Kurdish students were not real. See, http://www.globalsecurity.org/org/nsn/nsn-050411.htm for what happened with the so called Ricin plot which never happened. The killing of the copper in Crumpsall had nothing to do with Ricin or terrorism.
   As for the Farooqi family, even if Munir is guilty his family are innocent and shouldn’t face collective punishment. His so called guilt is anyway dependent entirley on the evidence of undercover cops who spent a year pretending to be muslims.

   Comment by Bob on November 21, 2011 at 6:18 pm

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