Radical cleric wins bid for freedom

7 Feb 2012, 3:14 pm   -   Source: AAP
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The release of a radical Muslim cleric described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe" on bail has been branded "a disgrace".

A British court's decision to release a radical Muslim cleric described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe" on bail has been branded "a disgrace".

Abu Qatada will be free despite the fact the British Home Secretary considers him "a real threat to our security".

The Home Office said it disagreed with freeing the preacher on bail, while politicians and think-tanks described it as an "astonishing" decision with serious implications for national security.

Qatada has been held for six-and-a-half years, more than any other detainee in modern immigration history, while fighting deportation to Jordan.

But he will be released from the maximum security prison where he is being held after applying for bail when human rights judges in Europe ruled he could not be deported without assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.

The Home Office clashed with senior immigration judge Mr Justice Mitting on Monday, saying: "Qatada should remain in detention, our view has not changed".

A spokesman said: "This is a dangerous man who we believe poses a real threat to our security and who has not changed in his views or attitude to the UK.

"This is not the end of the road and we are continuing to consider our legal options in response to the European Court's ruling."

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said bail decisions "must not interfere with keeping our country safe" and urged Home Secretary Theresa May "to explain urgently what action she is taking on the national security implications of this judgment".

The Henry Jackson Society think-tank added that the decision was "a disgrace".

Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, added that most people would be "astonished" by the move, while Ukip said Britain had been forced to let Qatada back on the streets, adding "our defences have been emasculated by our subservience to the European courts".

Mr Justice Mitting, president of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission which considered the case, said that while Qatada's detention to date had been justified, "the time will arrive quite soon when continuing detention or deprivation of liberty" would have to stop.

Ruling that Qatada should be "bailed on highly prescriptive terms", he gave the Home Secretary three months to show British diplomats were making progress in negotiations with Jordan or risk seeing Qatada's bail conditions removed.

"If by the end of that, the Secretary of State is not able to put before me evidence of demonstrable progress in negotiating sufficient assurances with the government of Jordan... it's very likely that I would consider that a continued deprivation of liberty is no longer justified," the judge said.

He added that the bail conditions would need to be tough as the "risks to national security and of absconding are not significantly changed".

Qatada must stay at a home address, which will be checked by MI5 over the next few days before he can be released from the high security Long Lartin jail in Worcestershire next week.

He will be on a 22-hour curfew, allowed to leave for only two one-hour periods each day, and must stay within a prescribed area at all times.

But he will allowed to walk one of his five children to school, Mr Justice Mitting said.

All visitors to his home, apart from his wife and children, must be approved beforehand, as must all pre-arranged meetings outside his home, and he will have no access to the internet or electronic communications devices.

The conditions are some of the toughest imposed since the September 11 terror attacks.

Qatada has been held for six-and-a-half years while fighting deportation "against a background of almost nine years' detention without charges on the grounds of national security", the equivalent to a 17-year jail sentence, the commission was told.

Ed Fitzgerald QC, representing Qatada, acknowledged the risks to national security posed by his client, but said he should be released anyway.

"However grave the risk of absconding, however grave the risk of further offending, there comes a point when it's just too long," he said.

Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, 51, was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and has featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.

Since 2001, when fears of the domestic terror threat rose in the aftermath of the attacks, he has challenged, and ultimately thwarted, every attempt by the Government to detain and deport him.

Last month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that sending Qatada back to face terror charges without assurances that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him would be a "flagrant denial of justice".

The ruling was the first time that the Strasbourg-based court has found an extradition would be in violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to a fair trial, which is enshrined in UK law under the Human Rights Act.

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