Pair win backing for brave bid to halt deportation

Tony Benn, John McDonnell MP, RMT union leader Bob Crow and Welsh Assembly Members Julie Morgan and Bethan Jenkins were among the campaigners who signed a letter calling on the Crown Prosecution Services to drop the charges against the men.

The pair, whose first names are Iwan and Sean, were arrested for disrupting a UK Border Agency raid on the Cardiff home of Ms Fariman Saleh in the early hours of October 18.

They are set to appear at Cardiff magistrates court on Tuesday.

A video of the incident filmed by Iwan shows around a dozen officers putting Ms Saleh and her son Ibrahim in a black people carrier while Ms Saleh's daughter Lyali cries hysterically in the doorway of the family's home.

Ms Saleh and her son were subsequently deported to Egypt.

The letter explains that Ms Saleh was "seeking sanctuary from an abusive husband whose campaign of terror" had "endangered both her life and that of her children for over 15 years."

It added that the men will argue they were preventing a "greater evil" by attempting to defend Ms Saleh and her son.

Julie Morgan AM, who has signed the letter and represents the area the family lived in, said in a statement that Ms Saleh and her children had lived in the area for five years and "were very much a part of the community."