‘Dangerous’ Abu Qatada to get bail after human rights ruling

The radical Muslim cleric has been battling deportation to Jordan where he is wanted on suspicion of a Millennium bomb plot.

Qatada has been held for more than six years but will be released on 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, the president of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), has given Home Secretary Theresa May three months to show the Government is making progress in negotiations with Jordan or they risk seeing his “stringent” bail conditions removed.

The Home Office said it disagreed with the decision to release Qatada, who was once described by a Spanish judge as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”.

“Qatada should remain in detention; our view has not changed,” a spokesman said. “This is a dangerous man who we believe poses a real threat to our security and who has not changed in his views or attitude to the UK.

“This is not the end of the road and we are continuing to consider our legal options in response to the European Court’s ruling.”

Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, 51, was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and has featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.

Since 2001, when fears of the domestic terror threat rose in the aftermath of the attacks, he has challenged, and ultimately thwarted, every attempt by the Government to detain and deport him.

Law Lords ruled almost three years ago that he could be sent back to Jordan and Lord Phillips, now president of the Supreme Court – the highest court in the land – said torture in another country does not require the UK “to retain in this country, to the detriment of national security, a terrorist suspect”. But last month the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights went against that judgment.

The judges ruled that sending Qatada back to face terror charges without assurances that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him would deny him his right to a fair trial and be a “flagrant denial of justice”.

The ruling was the first time that the Strasbourg-based court has found an extradition would be in violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to a fair trial, which is enshrined in UK law under the Human Rights Act.

Ed Fitzgerald QC, representing Qatada, told the Siac hearing in central London yesterday that Qatada should be released, regardless of the risk he poses to national security.

“However grave the risk of absconding, however grave the risk of further offending, there comes a point when it’s just too long,” he said.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper called for Mrs May “to explain urgently what action she is taking on the national security implications of this judgment”.

“This is the kind of case which shows why we introduced control orders and why we have warned the Government against weakening counter-terror powers and removing control orders in favour of Tpims (Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures) instead,” the Pontefract and Castleford MP said.

She added that “any bail decision must not interfere with keeping our country safe” and urged the Government to set out “how they are responding to the proposal for bail, what appeal they will pursue and what safeguards they will put in place”.

The Henry Jackson Society think-tank said the decision to release Qatada on bail was “a disgrace”.

Robin Simcox, a research fellow, said: “Abu Qatada’s release will be a test of the Government’s new Tpims, the successor to control orders. He is far too important an al-Qaida ideologue not to be under surveillance.”