THE British Home Secretary, Mr Michael Howard, admitted yesterday that commercial considerations played a part in ordering the deportation of a leading Saudi dissident write Rachel Borrill.
Despite a wave of outrage from human rights campaigners, opposition parties and several Tory MPs, Mr Howard said important commercial links between Britain and Saudi Arabia were valid grounds for deporting Dr alMasari, the leader of the fundamentalist committee for the Defence of Legitimate Rights.
"Our government exists to advance and protect the interests of the people of the United Kingdom. That is what we are there to look after and that includes the jobs of people in the United Kingdom and that is an entirely legitimate consideration for us to take into account in dealing with these matters," he said.
Dr al Masari (49), who has waged a relentless campaign against his country since arriving in Britain last year, has been given 10 days to lodge an appeal or face being expelled to Dominica, a former British colony.
The British government is expected to receive up to £20 billion sterling from the Al Yamamah arms deal but denied it had offered Dominica a "sweetener" in the form of increased overseas development to consider Dr alMasari's application for asylum if he should request it.
However, in an article in yesterday's London Independent, Dr alMasari said he intended to fight the deportation order. The Home Office has admitted that the decision to deport me was the result of a fine balancing act. It is unfortunate that the scales were tipped by political interference which in common law would have been called fraud or corruption.
"To what extent are democratic countries like Britain prepared to sacrifice their principles? Is the British tradition of giving a home to freedom fighters to be dashed against the rocks?" he wrote.