This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/uk/8543347.stm
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 0 | Version 1 |
|---|---|
| Somali group to be banned in UK | Somali group to be banned in UK |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| The Home Secretary is to designate the Somalia-based group Al-Shabaab as a terrorist organisation and ban its operation in the UK. | |
| The Home Office says the group is committed to violence, deploys terror tactics and has been implicated in attacks on Somali citizens. | The Home Office says the group is committed to violence, deploys terror tactics and has been implicated in attacks on Somali citizens. |
| Last month the group released a statement linking itself for the first time with Al-Qaeda. | Last month the group released a statement linking itself for the first time with Al-Qaeda. |
| Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that the ban was "tough but necessary". | Home Secretary Alan Johnson said that the ban was "tough but necessary". |
| He added that proscription was "not a course of action we take lightly". | |
| Jail sentence | |
| The ban would mean that membership of Al-Shabaab in the UK becomes a criminal offence and it could not operate lawfully, for example by fund-raising. | |
| An order has been laid in Parliament which is subject to Parliamentary approval. | |
| If passed, membership will be punishable with up to 10 years in prison. | |
| Much of southern Somalia is controlled by Al-Shabaab. | |
| In a statement released in February, the group said that the "jihad of Horn of Africa must be combined with the international jihad led by the al-Qaeda network". | |
| Recently, Mr Johnson has also banned Islam4UK, the group run by al-Muhajiroun founder Anjem Choudary, and which had threatened to march through Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire. |