Abu Qatada: Terror Suspect Set To Be Released - Sky News

What Is The Qatada Case About?

Updated: 5:29pm UK, Monday 12 November 2012

Successive governments have been trying for years to deport Abu Qatada to Jordan, but he has fought them every step of the way.

:: Who is he?

Abu Qatada, real name Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, is a 51-year-old radical cleric who has been living in Britain since he arrived on a forged passport in September 1993 and claimed asylum.

He has praised the September 11 terror attacks, advocated the killing of Jews, and issued a "fatwa" justifying the killing of converts from Islam, their wives and children in Algeria.

A Spanish judge once described him as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe" and he is considered by the UK authorities to pose a significant threat to national security.

:: Why does the Government want to deport him to Jordan?

Qatada was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and faces a retrial in his home country.

He has also now been in detention in the UK for seven years, "the longest period of administrative detention as far as we know in modern English history", his barrister Edward Fitzgerald QC said.

:: Why is he still here?

Qatada has made a series of challenges to moves to deport him. In the latest challenge, Europe's human rights judges said he could only be deported if there were assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him in his retrial.

:: So what assurances have been given?

Home Secretary Theresa May points to a change in the Jordanian constitution last autumn "that includes a specific ban on the use of torture evidence".

Other assurances include that Jordan's state security court is not a quasi-military court as judges at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg suggested, but a key part of the Jordanian justice system which hears a wide range of cases, Mrs May said.

Qatada's case "will be heard in public with civilian judges" and "his conviction in absentia will be quashed immediately" upon his return to Jordan, she added.

Mrs May also said Qatada would be held in a "normal civilian detention centre" with access to independent defence lawyers. His co-accused will still be able to give evidence in his trial, but "what they say in court will have no effect upon the pardons they have been granted", Mrs May said.

"We can therefore have confidence that they would give truthful testimony."

:: What happens next?

Siac upheld Qatada's appeal on the grounds that evidence gained through torture could still be used against him in Jordan, which would deny him the right to a fair trial.

Because of this doubt, he will be released on bail tomorrow, subject to a 16-hour curfew.

The Home Office applied to Siac for permission to appeal against the decision, but this was turned down. As a result, the Government will apply now to the Court of Appeal.