The Cordoba Foundation has seen last night’s ITV News investigation into a covert operation, funded by the United Arab Emirates, against our Chief Executive, Anas Altikriti.
We are issuing this statement because what the investigation describes does not concern Mr Altikriti alone; it concerns the safety of our staff, the integrity of our work, and the ability of a British civil society organisation to operate on British soil without interference from a foreign state.
Mr Altikriti is one of Britain’s most experienced hostage negotiators, having helped secure the release of 21 hostages held in conflict zones between 2005 and 2019, work that, on more than one occasion, required him to put his own life at risk. That record includes repeated journeys into Iraq in late 2005 and early 2006 in efforts to secure the release of Norman Kember, a British member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams taken hostage alongside American and Canadian colleagues, before their eventual release in March 2006.
We raise this not to catalogue Mr Altikriti’s record for its own sake, but because it matters: this is a man who has spent two decades risking his own safety to save the lives of others, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and who now learns that a foreign state allegedly funded an operation aimed at ending his.
According to the investigation, in December 2016 the UAE funded a mercenary, Abraham Golan, and his organisation, Spear Operations Group, to run a surveillance operation against Mr Altikriti in London. Golan is reported to have previously carried out assassination operations for the UAE in Yemen. The operation is said to have included detailed reconnaissance of Mr Altikriti’s home and this Foundation’s offices, mapping of his daily movements, and an attempt to lure him to a meeting under false pretences. A participant in the operation has told ITV that a throat-cutting gesture was made in connection with it, and that he understood its purpose to be the physical elimination of Mr Altikriti. Mr Altikriti was subsequently issued an Osman Notice by the Metropolitan Police, warning him that his life was at risk, without further explanation being provided at the time.
This is not the first hostile act by the UAE against this organisation that has come to light. In 2014, the UAE placed The Cordoba Foundation on a list of organisations it designated as supporting terrorism, a designation with no basis in law, evidence, or fact, and never adopted by the UK government, our regulator, or any credible international body.
We have long treated that as a political attack on an organisation that promotes dialogue and the full participation of Muslim communities in British life. We now know, if this reporting is accurate, that the same period saw a foreign state allegedly fund an operation against our Chief Executive that a witness has directly linked to a plan to kill him.
The Cordoba Foundation exists to build bridges between Muslim communities and wider society. That mission does not sit comfortably with every government, and we have never claimed it would. But there is a fundamental difference between disagreement or diplomatic pressure and the alleged funding of a covert operation against a British citizen on British streets. If proven, this is not a difference of opinion, it is transnational repression, carried out by a state that maintains close diplomatic, commercial, and security relationships with the United Kingdom.
We are calling on the UK government to launch a full and independent investigation into the matters this report raises, including what UK authorities knew, when they knew it, and what was done to protect Mr Altikriti and this organisation at the time.
We are calling on the Metropolitan Police to clarify the basis of the 2016 Osman Notice issued to Mr Altikriti in light of this new reporting. And we are calling on the government to explain how it squares its stated ambitions to deepen ties with the UAE with credible allegations that the UAE has targeted a British citizen for elimination on British soil.
The Cordoba Foundation and Mr Altikriti are now taking legal advice on all available options arising from this investigation, including possible legal action against those responsible for planning and funding this operation, and will pursue every lawful route open to us to secure accountability.
The Cordoba Foundation will continue its work without interruption. Our staff, trustees, and Chief Executive remain committed to the mission this organisation was founded to pursue.
We will not be deterred by intimidation, whoever is behind it, and we expect the British government to show the same resolve in defending those living and working lawfully within its borders.
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