Abu Qatada, a radical preacher described as Osama bin Laden’s “right hand man in Europe,” has successfully appealed a decision to deport him from the UK.
The Court of Appeal ruled in favour of Abu Qatada after deciding that evidence alleged to be obtained under torture may form part of a future trial in Jordan, the country where it was proposed he should be deported to. The government has said it will challenge the ruling, with Home Office minister Tony McNulty saying he believed the deportation would still go ahead.
Abu Qatada arrived in the UK in September 1993 on a forged United Arab Emirates passport, successfully claiming asylum in June 1994. He has been convicted of terror attacks in Jordan, and has reported links to “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and Zacarias Moussaoui, a member of al-Qaeda who was convicted of conspiring to kill Americans as a part of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Tapes of Abu Qatada’s sermons were also found in a Hamburg flat used by some of those responsible for 9/11.
In February 2001, Abu Qatada escaped charge of alleged connections to a German terror cell, despite anti-terrorism officers finding him in possession of £170,000 in cash, including £805 in an envelope labelled "For the Mujahedin in Chechnya."
He has been in custody pending extradition to Jordan since 2005. The UK signed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan in 2005 to ensure deported terror suspects would not face torture or ill-treatment under Jordanian custody, yet these assurances have been described as “a mere legal nicety” by Human Rights Watch.
Abu Qatada will remain in prison until his case is resolved.
Comments (1)
Muslims regard Mohammed as the ideal man and a moral exemplar for all time. Mohammed ordered and supervised the torture of Kinana bin al-Rabi, the Jewish leader at Khaybar. With such an illustrious precedent it is little wonder that the use of torture is virtually ubiquitous in the Islamic world ( try googling Malaysia or Turkey and the word torture). The net result is that it is virtually impossible to deport any Muslim terrorist who washes up on our shores back to his country of origin. Surely the right of a population not to have to put up with the presence of these people should trump the torture rule - otherwise almost all Muslim 'militants' are automatically immune to the threat of deportation.
Posted by Anonymous | April 10, 2008 1:57 AM
Posted on April 10, 2008 01:57