Radical cleric can be deported, rules court

13 April 2012

Hate-filled Muslim cleric Abu Qatada is to remain in Britain for up to two more years despite a court finally ruling the terror suspect should be deported.

His lawyers immediately announced he would appeal againt the verdict on human rights grounds, warning he would face beatings and an unfair trial in his native Jordan.

The case of Qatada - known as Osama bin Laden's 'right-hand man' in Europe - will now be dragged to the Court of Appeal, House of Lords and even the European Court of Human Rights.

And, while proceedings are ongoing, the Government remains powerless to boot him out.

Insiders said it could take up to two years - at a cost of £50,000 a year in legal fees and to keep the ranting preacher in high security Long Lartin jail.

The final cost to the taxpayer for the farce, which began in 2002, is expected to be £500,000.

Home Secretary John Reid yesterday hailed the verdict, by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), as a vital first step towards the Government's promise to deport terror suspects.

It was achieved by persuading Siac to accept a new legal agreement with Jordan, called a Memorandum of Understanding, would protect Qatada from any human rights abuse upon his return home.

The agreements are key to removing 23 terror suspects to countries which sanction torture or the death penalty.

Siac also said there was no doubt that Qatada - who has ties to Al Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri and the now dead Iraq terror warlord Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, as well as bin Laden - was a grave threat to national security.

Crucially, he provides a justification to extremists to carry out attacks on innocent men, women and children - including those living in the UK. The court's judgement said: "His reach and the depth of his influence in that respect is formidable, even incalculable.

"He provides a religious justification for the act of violence and terror which they wish to perpetrate."

After the verdict, Mr Reid said: "We welcome the decision that Abu Qatada presents a threat to our national security and can be deported."

But lawyers for Qatada, who arrived in Britain 13 years ago on a forged United Arab Emirates passport to claim asylum for himself and his family, announced their intention to appeal within minutes.

Human rights expert Gareth Peirce, who is acting for the 45-year-old, said sending him back to Jordan would be "grotesquely irreconcilable" with the concept of justice.

She complained he would face trial there by a military tribunal, using evidence obtained under torture.

He is wanted in relation to planned terrorist attacks, including bombings targeted at the millennium celebrations.

Qatada's various appeals are expected to drag on for at least two years.

The cost in legal fees and keeping him locked in a secure facility inside HMP Long Lartin while the cases are heard is likely to be £50,000 a year.

He was first seized in 2002, following the September 11 attacks in the U.S., and was held under controversial powers of detention without trial for almost three years.

He was released in March 2005, before being seized again in August that year following the July 7 bombings in London.

It was at this stage that formal deportation proceedings began.

Critics pointed out that simply clearing the very first hurdle to removal, the point reached yesterday, had taken 19 months.

Patrick Mercer, shadow minister for homeland security, said: "This man remains a complete and total drain on the British taxpayer and on the British security apparatus.

"I have no doubt he will continue to remain our guest for many months, if not years, to come. The Government should have seized him at the first possible opportunity and got rid of him."

In the past, British judges have labelled the preacher a "truly dangerous individual".

He called on British Muslims to martyr themselves in a holy war on oppression, and tapes of his sermons were found in a Hamburg flat used by some of the September 11 hijackers.

He had links with shoebomber Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, the '20th hijacker' in the 9/11 atrocities.

He was described by a Spanish judge as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe".

The Home Office has no power to deport Qatada until all the legal proceedings are complete.

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