Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) transformed from a jihadist movement aligned with al Qaeda to becoming the official government of Syria, a monumental shift for the country and the wider Middle East. This shift could potentially impact British individuals who went to Syria and were stripped of their citizenship on national security grounds.
Tauqir Sharif, known as Tox, traveled to Syria in 2012 as an aid worker. Accused of being part of an al Qaeda-affiliated group, which he denies, he was deprived of his British citizenship in 2017 by the then-home secretary Amber Rudd.
“As of now, I am deprived of my UK citizenship but I’m not a convicted terrorist,” he stated. “The reason for that is because we refused, we boycotted, the SIAC [Special Immigration Appeals Commission] secret courts, which don’t allow you to see any of the evidence presented against you.”
Tauqir Sharif, known as Tox, has been deprived of his British citizenship
