Abu Qatada: Cleric to arrive in Jordan

Controversial cleric Abu Qatada. Picture: Getty

After spending at least £1.7 million trying to eject the terror suspect from the UK, the Home Office prepared yesterday to put the 53-year-old on a military flight at RAF Northolt, west London, at about 2am this morning.

Following numerous courtroom battles, it was a treaty signed between the UK and Jordan that finally secured Qatada’s departure, giving the radical preacher the assurances he insisted he needed to leave his taxpayer-funded home behind.

The agreement, unveiled by the Home Secretary earlier this year, aims to allay fears that evidence extracted through torture will be used against the father-of-five at a retrial.

In a shock decision, Qatada pledged in May to leave Britain – with his family in tow – if and when the treaty was fully ratified, a process that concluded earlier this week, to the relief of many.

Once dubbed Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, Qatada has been in Belmarsh prison after breaching a bail condition that restricted use of mobile phones and other communication devices.

The government has been trying to deport him to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999, for about eight years.

Qatada – who has praised the 11 September terror attacks – has repeatedly used human rights laws to thwart his  removal.

This argument, originally rejected by the British courts, was upheld by judges in Strasbourg, forcing Home Secretary Theresa May to seek new legal guarantees from Jordan that his rights would not be breached. A 24-page mutual legal assistance treaty was drawn up between the UK and Jordan, containing a key passage that states where there are “serious and credible allegations that a statement from a person has been obtained by torture” it will not be used in a court.

Qatada’s lawyer Edward Fitzgerald QC then unexpectedly revealed to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) that his client was prepared to leave if the treaty was enshrined in law.

“There’s never been a time in the last 12 years that Mr Othman and his family could safely return to Jordan,” he said. “For a long period of time, he has made it clear that he wishes to leave lawfully.”

When Qatada returns to Jordan, it has been reported that he will be taken to the maximum security Muwaqqar prison in a military zone near the capital Amman.