Qatada had extremist material in home say police

The 52-year-old was arrested on March 8 for alleged bail breaches, and a hearing over whether he should be granted bail was due to be held yesterday but was delayed.

Police searched the hate preacher’s house in north London before he was held.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne said: “When we searched his house before his arrest that was a police search in relation to investigating some publications, to see if that was anything that reached a criminal threshold.

“There is an awful lot of media that needs to be looked through.”

The material was from a range of sources including online, and police are investigating whether the publications were written by Qatada.

They were in a variety of languages.

Qatada is accused of breaching a bail condition which prohibits him from having mobile telephones switched on in his house while he is present.

He was arrested by UK Border Agency officials and now the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) will decide whether he should be kept in prison.

Counter-terror police are investigating the extremist material and have not yet made any arrests themselves.

Mr Osborne said: “It will be some time before and if there are any.”

Home Secretary Theresa May is currently fighting a judge’s decision to allow Qatada, who has been convicted of terror charges in Jordan, to remain in the UK.

SIAC decided in November that Qatada could not lawfully be deported to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999.

The Home Office appealed, and the Court of Appeal is currently considering the case.