Fury as Iran arms fixer dodges deportation from Britain thanks to EU human rights laws

AN Iran arms fixer has dodged being deported from Britain thanks to EU human rights laws.

Mohammad Hakim-Hashemi, pictured above, claimed he could be tortured if returned to Tehran.

He was jailed in the US in 2012 after admitting breaching an arms embargo by trying to buy military aircraft parts for Iran’s air force.

Hakim-Hashemi, 67, was living in Britain under a spousal visa when he was arrested in Prague in 2012, extradited to the US and jailed for 27 months.

The court in America heard he had been hired as a middleman to make money transfers and arrange shipping of the aircraft engine parts to Iran via Malaysia.

On his release from prison in 2014 he was returned to the UK as his last country of residence.

Hakim-Hashemi put in a claim for asylum, which was refused in 2019.

He was allowed to stay pending an appeal.

An initial appeal to a first-tier immigration tribunal was rejected later that year.

Hakim-Hashemi’s lawyers then invoked the controversial European Convention on Human Rights.

They claimed he had a “well-founded fear of persecution” by Iran’s religious police and could face “torture, inhuman treatment and degrading punishment” if sent home.

His appeal was allowed by an upper tier judge.

Outside his £500,000 flat in Sunningdale, Berks, this week Hakim-Hashemi told The Sun: “I’m happy to stay.”

He refused to say why he felt he would be persecuted if sent home.

Tory MP Sir Alec Shelbrooke insisted: “Once again, Tony Blair’s Human Rights Act has overruled common sense.

“The fact this man was able to come straight back in shows fundamentally that we don’t know who is here and who isn’t.”

Ian Whittaker