Police killer escapes in veil

20/12/06 By Paul Jeeves of Daily Express

A SUSPECTED police killer escaped capture by fleeing Britain disguised as a Muslim woman.

Asylum seeker Mustaf Jama hid beneath a full-face niqab veil to sneak through Heathrow posing as his sister.

Jama, who is wanted for the murder of policewoman Sharon Beshenivsky, also wore a flowing head-to-toe jilbab as he fled to Somalia.

The Muslim gangster had been freed from jail six months earlier when Home Office officials ruled it would be unfair to deport him to his war-torn homeland because it was too dangerous.

The scandal emerged yesterday as Jama's brother Yusuf was convicted of the murder of 38-year-old WPC Beshenivsky in a bungled robbery. Muzzaker Shah, 25, was also convicted of murder and two accomplices were convicted of manslaughter.

Jama was Britain's most wanted man when, during last year's Christmas holidays, he sneaked through Heathrow - even though air, rail and sea ports were on red alert following the murder in Bradford the month before.

He used his sister's passport to get through a series of security checks. At no stage was he asked to remove the veil so officials could do a proper identity check.

There would have been opportunities as he checked-in for the flight, at the hand-luggage security screening, when passports are produced at embarkation and when boarding the plane.

Last night the Home Office said that although all those who wear a veil are checked as they arrive in the UK, this is "rarely done" for departing passengers.

A spokesman confirmed: "It's not an automatic policy. Immigration officers reserve the right to ask people to remove the veil in order to confirm their identification."

If necessary, a passenger can be taken to a private room and be asked to remove their veil by a female officer, he said.

BAA, which runs Heathrow, said it is ultimately up to airline cabin staff during boarding whether to ask for a veil to be lifted, a power which is not rigorously enforced.

One intelligence source said: "The implications of this are truly frightening.
"The fact that a man who, at the time, was Britain's most wanted person walked through airport security checks dressed as a woman could be interpreted as an open invitation to terrorists to sneak on to a jumbo jet and blow it up.

"We know he flew from Heathrow to Somalia sometime between Christmas and New Year last year and is in hiding out there.

"The police are determined to get him back to the UK to face justice but because Somalia is effectively lawless it's an unbelievably difficult task.

"But it is incredible, given the huge manhunt that was on for him, that he could just walk through Heathrow dressed as a Muslim woman."

The revelation could add further weight to calls by 98 per cent of Daily Express readers for the controversial niqab to be banned in Britain.

Full story is available on there website in the top stories section... Now what do you think about this issue? My personal view and comment to the Daily Express was:
As reported in your article, "Immigration officers reserve the right to ask people to remove the veil in order to confirm their identification." If necessary, a passenger can be taken to a private room and be asked to remove their veil by a female officer." Even on Islamic terms there is nothing wrong and no decent Muslim would object even if it was to be passed as a law these checks should be done when necessary. In this particular situation no one is to blame however immigration officers had the right to check, they didn't...
As for banning the niqab..Why should we? Are these people not law abiding citizens? Just because of one man who abused the religion of Islam the rest of the community has to suffer. Surely when a member of our community commits a crime we do not punish the whole nation, e.g. When a drunken man smashes the windows of a neighbour do we ban drinking? Why does the government not concentrate on the real problems of this country...teenage pregnancies, drug and alcohol abuse, gun crime, the illegal war in Iraq, should I go on with the list?

As for some of the comments on this page I would like to ask, you say, you have to adhere to the laws of muslim countries when you go abroad, Turkey; muslim country yet you all bathe in the pools, Pakistan; I've seen non muslims walking about doing there business and of course Dubai where there own people wear there attire are you made to wear a black cloak and niqab???
Z, Dundee, Scotland

the only words that ring through my ears at the moment is, 'if we are firm on the deen' Allah سبحانه وتعالى will test us' and these are merely tests, are we going to let the media frighten us? they have not banned the niqab, yet i see some women who have already removed their veil due to fear. Fear of what? isnt Allah سبحانه وتعالى in control.

i have yet to see any non-muslim following the religion or even any custom in action, dress or habit whilst visiting any muslim country. this includes countries such as turkey, tunisia, dubai, jeddah etc. and i dont see the muslim government or media making a fuss about them, and yet people say, would we be allowed to do such and such if we were in a muslim country, get over it, sort your passports out, put your money where your mouth is and go travel around the world and see for yourselves how the rest of the big wide world is living.

Shadow home secretary David Davis said tighter border checks were needed.

Immigration Minister Liam Byrne said computerised exit controls were planned but current intelligence-led measures were effective.

Visual checks are carried out on people arriving in the UK but BAA, which owns and operates Heathrow airport, said it was the responsibility of individual airlines to confirm the identity of passengers at check-in and boarding gates.

The Home Office said police and immigration officers carried out checks on those leaving the UK on an "intelligence-led basis".

Mr Byrne said keeping paper records of all arrivals and departures, which were scrapped by the Conservatives for EU travel in 1992 and for the rest of the world by Labour in 1998, was no longer suitable.

The government wants to use details stored in biometric passports to introduce electronic border controls from 2009.

'Standard practice'

The wanted man, Mustaf Jamma, is the brother of Yusuf Jamma who this week was found guilty of Pc's Beshenivsky's murder in Bradford.

Some newspaper reports have suggested the 26-year-old stole his sister's passport after he was put on police wanted lists and wore a full niqab, a veil that totally obscures the face, to evade capture at the airport.

Mr Byrne told BBC Radio 4's The World at One: "We don't have exit controls around the clock, around all of our borders; what we do make sure we do is respond immediately to police requests."

It's a relatively quick thing to look at somebody's passport, look at their face and wave them through if they are who they say they are

David Davis, shadow home secretary

He said it was "standard practice" for immigration officers to ask woman to lift their veils.

"If immigration officers have got suspicions they fingerprint people and check them against our databases," he added.

"That's exactly how we caught 750 offenders in one month alone - November - at Heathrow."

Shadow home secretary David Davis said the fact that anyone could be allowed through controls wearing a veil was "barely credible".

"Doing so when an All Persons Bulletin for murder has been issued demonstrates that our borders are not just porous but non-existent," he added.

He said the government should reintroduce some form of exit control ahead of any new scheme.

"It's a relatively quick thing to look at somebody's passport, look at their face and wave them through if they are who they say there are," he said.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg has said if the reports are true it "beggars belief" that there are no visual facial checks when a person leaves the country at an airport.

The BBC News website was contacted by one reader who said his wife was always asked to remove her veil when checking in at UK airports.

Jonathan Marshall said there would not be a problem "provided that it is a female who conducts this identity check in a private location - which has always so far been the case".

Armed raid

It is understood West Yorkshire Police - who have not commented on reports about the veil theory - regard it only as one of a number of possibilities.

Paul Beshenivsky said Mustaf Jamma should have been deported

Mustaf Jamma was released from jail six months before Pc Beshenivsky was killed.

He was considered for deportation after his release but was allowed to stay in the UK because Somalia was thought too dangerous.

Pc Beshenivsky's widower, Paul, condemned human rights laws for preventing Mustaf Jamma's deportation.

And West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Tom McGhie said he and his colleagues had concerns over the way Mustaf Jamma was apparently able to leave the country.

On Tuesday the jury in the trial of four men over 38-year-old Pc Beshenivsky's death was discharged after failing to reach a verdict on a final count of robbery.

Three men have been found guilty of killing the officer, who was shot after an armed raid in Bradford in 2005. Another man had earlier admitted murder.

The jury could not decide if Raza Ul-Haq Aslam, 25 - who was cleared of murder, manslaughter and firearms offences - was guilty of robbery, and a retrial was ordered.

As well as Mustaf Jamma another man called Piran Ditta Khan, whom the prosecution alleged was the "architect of the robbery", remains on the run from police.

I suspected this was the case when i first heard of this 'story'. The article was from the Daily Express !