London - A radical Muslim cleric who is wanted for trial in
Jordan will be deported from Britain 'as soon as possible' following
the rejection of his appeal by the Law Lords, the government vowed
Wednesday.
Abu Qatada, 48, a Palestinian-Jordanian who first came to Britain
in 1993, has fought a lengthy court battle over his deportation,
arguing that he would not face a fair trial in Jordan, where he is
wanted on terrorism charges.
But on Wednesday, the Law Lords ruled unanimously in favour of the
government, which alleged that Abu Qatada posed a threat to national
security.
'Evidence of torture in another country...does not require this
state, the United Kingdom, to retain in this country, to the
detriment of national security, a terrorist suspect,' the ruling
said.
Immediately after the ruling, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith
announced that she had signed the deportation order which would be
served on the cleric Wednesday.
'I am keen to deport this dangerous individual as soon as I can,'
said Smith.
However, lawyers for the Abu Qatada announced that they would take
the case to the European Court of Human Rights, delaying any
deportation moves.
'This judgement will pour a dose of cold water on our belief that
we have indeed advanced in our willingness to confront the ugly issue
of the use of torture,' they said in a statement.
The five Law Lords also unanimously supported the deportation of
two Algerian terrorism suspects whose cases covered similar grounds.
In 2005, the British government signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with Jordan, Algeria and other countries, aimed
at ensuring that deportees will not suffer torture on their return.
Amnesty International urged the British government not to take the
judgement as a 'green light' to deport more people to regimes where
they risked unfair trial or torture.
Abu Qatada was first arrested in the wake of the 2001 terrorist
attacks in the US and has since been held pending his extradition.
His convictions in Jordan relate to an alleged conspiracy to bomb
hotels in the capital, Amman, along with allegedly providing finance
and advice for other plots.
In December, 2005, Abu Qatada made a video appeal from prison to
the kidnappers of British peace activist Norman Kember in Iraq, who
was later released.
Kember later made donations to a bail fund for Abu Qatada, saying
that the cleric had been held 'without trial for too long.'
According to the British authorities, Abu Qatada had links with
the perpetrators of the September 11 attacks in the US. Tapes of his
sermons had been found in a flat in Hamburg, Germany, used by some of
the ringleaders of the 9/11 attacks.
But Abu Qatada, a father of five, has repeatedly distanced himself
from claims of links to al-Qaeda and insisted that he never met the
leader of the terrorism network, Osama bin Laden.
The two Algerian men, who also lost their cases, had said that
they could face torture if returned to their home country.
Campaign group Human Rights Watch said Wednesday that the ruling
undermined the global ban on torture.
The ruling endorsed the 'British government's use of unreliable
promises from the Algerian and Jordanian governments that, despite
the well-documented evidence of torture in both countries,
individuals sent from the UK would not be tortured.'
USA
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