Hate cleric Abu Hamza's son launches legal bid to return to UK as he denies fighting for Al Qaeda in Syria

Published: 22:01, 18 July 2026 | Updated: 22:15, 18 July 2026 The son of hate cleric Abu Hamza – who allegedly fought for Al Qaeda in Syria – has gone head-to-head with MI5 in a bid to return to the UK. Sufean Kamal, 31, was stripped of his British citizenship after intelligence suggested he was fighting with jihadi groups in the war-torn region. He was said to pose a serious threat to national security but he has now launched a legal battle to return to Britain because his wife and children still live here. Kamal, also known as Sufyan Mustafa, is the son of hook-handed terrorist Hamza, 68, who preached at Finsbury Park Mosque, north London, and was deported to the US for terror offences. An MI5 assessment says British-born Kamal, a former computer sciences student, was welcomed by jihadi groups in war-torn Syria because his father was a notorious hate preacher in the West. But his lawyers are arguing that stripping him of his citizenship was illegal because the MI5 assessment was ‘false’, and that he is being denied his human rights to a family life. They say Kamal denies fighting for Al Qaeda or any jihadi groups, and that he instead fought with rebels against the Assad regime alongside the Free Syrian Army (FSA) which was backed by Britain and other Western countries. His case, which was heard last week at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, has involved MI5 sharing classified intelligence to a panel of three judges. Sufean Kamal, 31, was stripped of his British citizenship after intelligence suggested he was fighting with jihadi groups in the war-torn region An MI5 spy, identified as MT, gave evidence against Kamal from behind a curtain to protect his identity, as the suspected jihadi followed the case via video link from a location in Syria. Court documents state that Kamal fled to Syria in April 2013 – a year after his father was extradited to the US to face terror charges including that he tried to set up a jihadi training camp in Oregon. But Kamal’s lawyers claim that he fought alongside the secular FSA in northern cities and stayed away from extremist groups. They say he went to ‘fight against terrorists, not become one’. However, the court heard that by 2016, there was enough evidence that Kamal was fighting for jihadi groups including the Nusra Front – the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda – that MI5 advised then Home Secretary Amber Rudd to strip him of his British citizenship. A British mother who fled to Syria in 2013 with six of her children has launched a legal fight to come back to the UK. The woman, only identified as S9, is believed to have lived under the Islamic State caliphate during the Syrian civil war. She apparently went to Syria to join her British jihadi brother after she was widowed. Four years later, her British citizenship was stripped from her, but she only discovered this last year when she tried to renew the passport of her youngest child. She is now fighting her case at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission to return to Britain. The advice said: ‘Should Kamal return to the UK, we assess that there is a real risk that he would use his experience in Syria to assist UK-based Islamist extremists to engage in Islamist extremist activity.’ The court papers also state that Kamal attempted to return to the UK in January 2019 from Istanbul, but was arrested and detained in Turkey for two years. Turkish intelligence agents interrogated him about his activities in Syria and tried and failed to deport him to Morocco, where he could apply for citizenship because his mother is Moroccan. He currently lives in Syria. Last week, Kamal told the court via video link: ‘Taking away my citizenship has affected me and my family. I am not a terrorist.’ Abu Hamza was jailed for life without parole in the US in 2014. Of Hamza’s six sons, four have convictions for offences including terrorism, armed robbery, drug dealing, fraud and burglary. Between them, they have chalked up at least 40 years in British jails. Abu Hamza, pictured here in 1999, was jailed for life without parole in the US in 2014 The remaining two have a track record of Islamic extremism. In 2017, Kamal said: ‘Britain is the place where I was born and lived. I have never been a threat to national security in Britain. Abu Hamza is my father and he has his own opinions and I have mine. Revoking my citizenship just because I am related to Abu Hamza is not allowed.’