UK officials in Jordan to discuss Abu Qatada deportation

Published on Tuesday 14 February 2012 12:24

HOME Office minister James Brokenshire is in Jordan for talks about Abu Qatada, whom the UK wants to deport following the freeing of the extremist Muslim preacher on Monday.

Jordan’s minister for legislative affairs, Ayman Odeh, has said the cleric would not be tortured if he returned to stand trial.

Qatada, who is said to pose a serious risk to the UK’s national security is currently free to walk the streets in the UK while talks continued to deport him as soon as possible. He was released under some of the toughest conditions imposed since the September 11 terror attacks and is allowed to leave his home for just two hours a day.

His release from Long Lartin high-security jail in Evesham, Worcestershire, came 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.

Home Secretary Theresa May now has just three months to show the government is making significant progress in securing those assurances or risk Qatada, once described by a judge as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, being freed from his bail conditions.

Last week, Prime Minister David Cameron told King Abdullah of the “frustrating and difficult” position Britain was in over its efforts to deport the Islamist radical.

But Ayman Odeh, the Jordanian legislative affairs minister, has said the country had passed a constitutional amendment in September to ban the use of evidence obtained through torture.

“We are confident that once we have the chance to make this statement through the diplomatic channels... (it) will be taken into consideration,” he said.

“We are now making the arrangements to do such assurances through the British government. Very soon something will be done for this purpose.”