The SRI arguments in the file of an immigrant accused of links with Hamas have been repressed by the court
The Bucharest Court of Appeal rejected, last month, the request of the Prosecutor's Office regarding the expulsion of the Palestinian citizen Zemeili Mahmoud, established in Romania for 40 years, about which the Romanian Intelligence Service (SRI) claims to be radicalized and have connections with the Hamas group. The reason for rejecting the decision is the lack of concrete evidence to demonstrate the involvement of the man in subversive activities or direct threats to the national security of Romania, notes newsprotv.ro.
Photo: Archive
The trial is currently in the appeal phase to the High Court of Cassation and Justice, after the Prosecutor's Office challenged the decision of the substantive court, following a deadline on October 16th.
At the beginning of August, the Prosecutor's Office requested that Zemeili Mahmoud be declared undesirable on the territory of Romania for a period of 10 years, invoking reasons for national security. Prosecutors have submitted classified SRI documents according to which the man “It is located in an advanced stage of the process of (car) radicalization, it has carried out, there is a thorough indications from which the reasonable suspicion that intends to carry out subversive activities in favor of the Hamas terrorist group.”.
According to the SRI, he would be a follower of the radical ideology promoted by the organization, accessing and disseminating terrorist propaganda, which would be threats to national security.
On the other hand, the Palestinian lawyers presented to the court evidence that Zemeili Mahmoud was born in 1964 in Ramallah, legally entered Romania in 1984 and constantly lived in Timisoara for 36 years. In 2011 he married a Romanian, who divorced in 2023, then settling in Bucharest, where he works as an administrator at a construction company. The lawyers stressed that, according to the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), the expulsion of a long -term immigrant must take into account its social, family and cultural connections with the host country.
The judges of the Bucharest Court of Appeal explained that the SRI evidence is not consistent and that the charges do not highlight “Concrete, direct, serious and current risks” for national security.
“With a preliminary and important title to note is the aspect that, although both in the notification of the Public Ministry and in the SRI, the existence of three hypotheses that would justify the defendant's declaration as an undesirable territory, the Court finds the total absence of any evidence that could support the thesis of the defendant, as well as the defendant, as well as in the present, is shown in the court's motivation.
Magistrates stressed that statements regarding the risk of self-radicalization “I remain in an abstract area, without coverage in the plan of the evidence imposed to have been made”.
Also, the classified documents presented by the SRI contain, for the most part, images accompanied by theoretical deductions, without being able to be certainly attributed to the man. The court also considered the Palestinian posts on Facebook, which shows forms of manifestation of freedom of thought and his beliefs, without evidence that he would have promoted terrorist acts.
“Without denying the degree of increased violence of the content of some of the administered evidence, holding instead the general context and the personal implications of the defendant from the perspective of the relatives remaining in the conflict area and by balance the concrete facts imputed, for which a concrete intention to take effective actions was highlighted in the support of the organization. years), the long period of residence in Romania (41 years) and the private life that it has exclusively in Romania, the Court considers that the accusations do not justify the expulsion for a period of 10 years ”is shown in the conclusion of the judges.
