Britain ready to deport radical cleric after court ruling (Roundup)

Feb 18, 2009, 14:52 GMT

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.'