THE Jamaican Government still cannot confirm if Muslim cleric Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, linked to the July 7, 2005 bombings of the London transportation system, is Jamaican or if he will be deported to the island within weeks as reported by the Britain’s Observer newspaper over the weekend.

“We have not received any information on whether he is to be deported here,” said Gilbert Scott, the permanent secretary in the Ministry of National Security.

He added that under normal circumstances the government would have to be notified in advance about a person being deported for the necessary checks to be made.

The newspaper reported that Britain’s Home Office confirmed that el-Faisal has been served with notice of deportation to Jamaica, signalling that he would be released from prison, barring a successful appeal against the decision.

But Scott told the Observer that if and when such notification is received, the necessary checks will be done to determine if el-Faisal is Jamaican.

An individual can be classified as Jamaican, either by birth, naturalisation or through descendants.

“We would review all the documentation and go through the normal procedure using all the available information to make a determination,” Scott said.

At the same time, Scott said if the Muslim cleric is proven to be a Jamaican and is deported her, his monitoring would largely be determined by the court’s decision to grant a monitoring order.

Meanwhile, the Jamaican police have already started the necessary inquiries to determine if el-Faisal is a citizen of the country.

Deputy Commissioner Charles Scarlett told the Observer, however, that further checks were being made.

DCP Scarlett said, too, that the monitoring of el-Faisal, if the cleric is deported to the island, must be done within the law.

“Right now there is a monitoring act whereby if a person is deported to Jamaica and he is perceived to be a threat to national security and public order and if the person was convicted in the sending country we are required by law to obtain a monitoring order,” said the deputy commissioner.

On Monday, the British High Commission in Kingston was also unable to provide any information about el-Faisal, saying it was policy not to comment on individual cases.

But Mark Waller, the high commission’s press and political affairs officer, told the Observer that no information on the Muslim cleric had been sent to Kingston from the British Home Office.

Britain’s Observer newspaper reported that 39-year-old el-Faisal, formerly known as Trevor William Forest, the Islamic cleric who influenced at least one of the July 7 bombers and whose videos may have been seen by several of the terror suspects arrested earlier this month, is to be freed from prison in weeks. He is said to have encouraged Muslims to attend training camps so they could wage jihad on the West.

– browni@jamaicaobserver.com