Qatada deportation fight may go to highest court in country

Home Secretary Theresa May’s appeal to the UK Supreme Court comes after judges last month rejected the latest in a long line of attempts to deport the terror suspect to Jordan.

In March, Court of Appeal judges backed an earlier ruling that Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, could not be deported over fears evidence obtained through torture would be used against him.

Mrs May said assurances she has obtained from the Jordanian authorities would prevent any unfair treatment and has urged officials to refer the case to the Supreme Court for her arguments to be reconsidered.

If leave to appeal is refused, the Home Secretary can ask the Supreme Court directly for permission to lodge her appeal, although if this too is refused she will be forced to find new ways to secure Qatada’s removal.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We have today asked the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal its recent decision on Abu Qatada to the Supreme Court.

“The Government remains committed to deporting this dangerous man and we continue to work with the Jordanians to address the outstanding legal issues preventing deportation.”

Senior Government officials have been trying to deport the radical cleric to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999, for nearly eight years.

The Home Secretary’s lawyers challenged a ruling made last November by immigration judges on the grounds that Qatada was a “truly dangerous” individual who had escaped deportation through “errors of law”.

But three Court of Appeal judges said the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) was entitled to conclude that disputed statements will be used against Qatada.

And in reaching their conclusion they added it was not “relevant” that the terror suspect was regarded as “extremely dangerous”.

Qatada, who featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the 9/11 bombers, has ultimately thwarted every attempt by the Government to put him on a plane. A resident in the UK since September 1993, he was returned to jail last month after he was arrested for alleged bail breaches.

A hearing over whether Qatada, once described as al-Qaida’s spiritual leader in Europe, should be granted bail again was due to 
be held last month but was delayed.

Police searched the hate preacher’s family home in London before he was held and have since said that he is being investigated over extremist material.

The legal aid bill for the radical cleric stood at £515,778 in December and has continued to rise.

In February members of his family won an injunction preventing protesters from demonstrating directly outside their home in London.

Issuing an anti-harassment order, the judge said demonstrations can still take place but they have to be more than 500 metres from the house.

Earlier this month, Conservative Justice Secretary Chris Grayling invited Labour to join forces to end the human rights “madness” keeping the Muslim cleric in Britain.

He said the system had gone “badly wrong” because the UK cannot deport a man “who so obviously despises what we stand for” and said Conservative attempts to change human rights laws had been thwarted by their Liberal Democrat Coalition partners.

The Justice Secretary said the Conservatives would change human rights laws immediately in order to deport Qatada, but they cannot secure enough votes in Parliament.

He appealed to Labour leader Ed Miliband to “support radical reform of our human rights laws”.

Mr Grayling wrote: “We have given up far too much of our own sovereignty. We have given up too many of our own democratic rights. We need to reverse the changes.”