U.K. - Bin Laden's 'right-hand man' Abu Qatada will be back on our streets TOMORROW.(DM).Terror suspect Abu Qatada today won his appeal against deportation to Jordan to face trial and will be released tomorrow after being granted bail.
It's a huge setback for the Government which has been trying to get him out of the UK for a decade.
The radical cleric, once described by a judge as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, has been fighting extradition to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999.
An immigration appeals court blocked the deportation because judges were not convinced that no evidence obtained through torture would be used against Qatada in Jordan.
Special Immigration Appeals Commission judges said the British government 'has not satisfied us that ...there is no real risk' that statements obtained under torture would not be used at a trial abroad.
Qatada - whose lawyers had previously insisted that he would not get a fair trial in Jordan - was allowed to stay in Britain in 1994, but the Government desperately wants him deported.
The judge said he wanted to subject Qatada to ‘standard-style’ bail conditions and after seven years of detention, did not want to deprive him of his liberty.
The cleric will be subject to a 16-hour curfew and will be allowed out between 8am and 4pm. He will be bailed to his home address, but the court earlier heard he and his family were planning to move.
Home Secretary Theresa May was given assurances by Jordan that no evidence gained through torture would be used against Qatada, who would face a retrial there over the terror charges Legal costs for Qatada have amounted to £420,000 over a 10-year period - including £5,288 for legal action over his jail conditions, figures revealed last week. In his latest stint in British jail, Qatada has been behind bars for seven months since April 17. The Home Office said the Government 'strongly disagrees' with the Siac ruling and wanted to appeal.
A spokesman said: 'We have obtained assurances not just in relation to the treatment of Qatada himself, but about the quality of the legal processes that would be followed throughout his trial.
'Indeed, today's ruling found that "the Jordanian judiciary, like their executive counterparts, are determined to ensure that the appellant will receive, and be seen to receive, a fair retrial". We will therefore seek leave to appeal today's decision.'Read the full story here.
