Britain:A Muslim preacher linked to al-Qaeda has lost an appeal against British government attempts to deport him to his native Jordan in a landmark case that could result in the extradition of foreign terror suspects to countries with poor human rights records.
Abu Qatada - real name Omar Mahmood Othman Abu Omar - claimed asylum in Britain after arriving on a forged passport in 1993. Since then he has been convicted in absentia in Jordan for a string of terrorism offences. The British government considers him a danger to national security, claiming his continuing presence in the country is "not conducive to the public good".
In hearings last May, his legal team argued that their client faced torture or ill-treatment if he was handed over to Jordanian authorities. They also claimed the case against him was based on evidence obtained by torture.
Qatada has spent much of the last five years in jail. He was held without charge at the high-security Belmarsh prison until a House of Lords committee ruled in 2004 that indefinite detention without trial was unlawful. After being released on a control order, he was returned to jail in August 2005 pending deportation.
Qatada's case was the first legal challenge to British government plans to deport foreign radicals to countries accused of using torture after securing assurances that their human rights would not be violated. The Home Office wants to extradite more than a dozen such suspects currently being held in Britain. It has signed a so-called "memorandum of understanding" with several countries including Jordan, intended to guarantee the safety of those returned to custody in their home countries.
The agreements are designed to provide a way around European human rights legislation which bans member states from deporting people to countries where they could be tortured.
Ian Burnett QC, acting for the home secretary, said it would be "extraordinary" if Jordan failed to comply with the diplomatic assurances set out in the memorandum, signed with the British government in 2005.
Human rights groups, however, say such assurances are not legally enforceable and fail to provide a strong enough safeguard against torture and abuse.
In rejecting Qatada's appeal yesterday, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London said it had concluded there was "no real risk of persecution". Acknowledging that Qatada was likely to face questioning by the CIA as well as Jordanian authorities on his return, it claimed intense international interest in the case would deter ill-treatment.
"The Jordanians and the US would each be careful to ensure that the US did not overstep the mark in the way it carried out its interrogation," the written judgment said. "We take the view that all the relevant Jordanian authorities would be scrupulous to observe the law, under the spotlight."
British home secretary John Reid welcomed the ruling. "We are pleased that the court has recognised the value of memoranda of understanding," he said.
"It is our firm belief that these agreements strike the right balance between allowing us to deport individuals who threaten the security of this country and safeguarding the rights of these individuals on their return."
A Jordanian government spokesman told The Irish Timesit would not be commenting until the ruling had been examined in full.
Qatada's lawyer Gareth Peirce said her client would appeal the decision. "This is sending him to a flagrant denial of justice," she said. "We say it would be so grotesquely unreconcilable with the concept of justice that it would constitute a complete denial of our responsibilities - to deport on that basis with that known prospect."
Shami Chakrabarti, director of Liberty, said that "dodgy" assurances from regimes that practised torture impressed few outside government. "We know how easily our government is convinced by creative approaches to international law, but it will take more than wishful thinking and paper promises to wash our hands of torture," she said.
A Palestinian who holds Jordanian citizenship, Abu Qatada was convicted in Jordan in 2000 on charges of conspiring to attack American and Israeli tourists during the country's millennium festivities. In a previous trial held in 1998, he and eight others were found guilty of conspiring to detonate bombs outside a Jordanian hotel, school, and under the cars of a former intelligence chief and a former interior minister.
Although Qatada has publicly denied links to al-Qaeda, Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon once described him as Osama Bin Laden's "spiritual ambassador" in Europe. Tapes of the cleric's sermons were found in a Hamburg apartment used by some of the 9/11 hijackers. He is alleged to have inspired several militants including Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber".
Additional reporting by Frank Millar in London.