{"id":674802,"date":"2026-07-05T09:35:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T09:35:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674802\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T09:35:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T09:35:13","slug":"prisoner-trapped-on-ipp-sentence-so-desperate-to-be-free-that-he-renounces-british-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/674802\/","title":{"rendered":"Prisoner trapped on IPP sentence so desperate to be free that he renounces British citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Breaking<\/p>\n

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\"Breaking<\/p>\n

A prisoner serving an abolished indefinite jail term<\/a> has renounced his British citizenship and issued a desperate plea to be deported, claiming it is his \u201conly hope\u201d of freedom.<\/p>\n

Nicholas Bidar<\/a> has languished for more than 17 years without release \u2013 almost ten years longer than his original minimum eight-year tariff \u2013 after he was handed a controversial imprisonment for public protection (IPP) jail term aged 21. <\/p>\n

Despite the Parole Board <\/a>recommending he should be moved to open conditions and urging the Ministry of Justice to review his high-risk Category A status, he is still languishing in a maximum security prison. <\/p>\n

Now 38, he has revealed he has given up all hope of being released and rebuilding his life in Britain. The former British-Egyptian dual national has revoked his British citizenship and is applying to be deported to Egypt, where he hopes to start afresh with his father.<\/p>\n

Labour has pledged to ramp up removals of foreign offenders to save taxpayers\u2019 money and free up desperately needed prison cells. Under the government\u2019s Tariff-Expired Removal Scheme (TERS), foreign offenders are considered for deportation once their minimum term is up. <\/p>\n

Mr Bidar<\/a> is incarcerated at HMP Manchester, where holding a prisoner costs taxpayers more than \u00a3100,000 a year. <\/p>\n

He told The Independent: \u201cI’ve lost all hope with the Parole Board. This is the only chance I’ve got left. They keep going on about deporting foreign nationals. I’m here. I’m costing you money. I’m asking to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NicholasNicholas Bidar, 39, is almost ten years over tariff on an IPP sentence (Supplied)<\/p>\n

He has appealed for the Ministry of Justice \u2013 which has the power to block his removal \u2013 to support his deportation. If they refuse he would be left stateless and trapped in indefinite detention.<\/p>\n

Mr Bidar was handed an IPP for a string of robberies and using a gun to resist arrest in 2008, with later convictions for assaults in prison and a period in which he escaped custody.<\/p>\n

But he says he has changed, adding: \u201cI’m no risk to no public, I accept what I did and I served my time and I am no longer that person, I am nearly 40 now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The open-ended punishments<\/a> were abolished in 2012, but not retrospectively, leaving thousands already sentenced trapped in prison without a release date. <\/p>\n

The jail terms have been linked to 96 suicides in prison<\/a> and widely condemned, with the UN describing the punishments as \u201cpsychological torture\u201d. However, successive governments have refused calls to resentence almost 2,400 remaining IPP prisoners.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Mr Bidar was the first IPP prisoner to have his parole hearing held in public. He argued he was a political prisoner<\/a> because his category A status – which is decided by the MoJ – was preventing him from progressing to open conditions.<\/p>\n

\"HMPHMP Manchester, better known as Strangeways (Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In a written decision, the board agreed that Mr Bidar\u2019s category A status was interfering with his progress and called for \u201cimmediate action\u201d to be taken. However, more than two years later, he is still classed as category A.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy only hope I’ve got left now is deportation,\u201d he told The Independent, adding that the uncertainty of his jail term had an \u201cimmense impact\u201d on his wellbeing and mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just cruel,\u201d he said, noting other criminals are being released a third of the way through their sentence under government measures to ease overcrowding.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of us [IPP prisoners] haven’t committed offences in over a decade. They’re never, ever gonna let us go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MrMr Bidar has called for the Ministry of Justice to support his deportation (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cIt’s a shame I’ve had to renounce my citizenship and leave everything, especially my family, but I’ll be free because otherwise I will die, they’re never ever gonna let me out. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’m on 18 years inside, on Category A. There’s no law, no solicitor who can save me, no nothing. No one can do anything. They’ve got no power. I’ve got no power. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve tried everything. So that’s the only hope, and I still think these people [the government] will still try to keep me.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: \u201cWhile we do not comment on individual cases, it is right that IPP sentences were abolished and we have already taken action to support these offenders to move on with their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-674802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}