Bin Laden’s right-hand man free within days

Abu Qatada will be on the streets next week despite the fact the Home Secretary considers him “a real threat to our security”.

He has been held for six-and-a-half years, more than any other detainee in modern immigration history, while fighting deportation to Jordan.

But he successfully applied for bail after human rights judges in Europe ruled he could not be deported without assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.

Mr Justice Mitting, president of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) which considered his case, said that while his detention to date had been justified, “the time will arrive quite soon when continuing detention or deprivation of liberty” would have to stop.

Ruling that Qatada should be “bailed on highly prescriptive terms”, he gave Home Secretary Theresa May three months to show that British diplomats were making progress in negotiations with Jordan or risk seeing Qatada’s bail conditions removed.

“If by the end of that, the Secretary of State is not able to put before me evidence of demonstrable progress in negotiating sufficient assurances with the government of Jordan it’s very likely that I would consider that a continued deprivation of liberty is no longer justified,” he said.