Radical Muslim cleric with links to Bin Laden is freed on bail

Local & National

Friday, May 09, 2008

Abu Qatada, the Islamist preacher described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", could be freed on curfew within weeks after being granted bail by an immigration tribunal.

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, led condemnation of the move, which delivers another embarrassing blow to the credibility of the Government's anti-terror legislation.

Some of the bail money is thought to have been put up by Norman Kember, the British charity worker held in Baghdad for four months in 2005-06. Qatada made a video appeal to Mr Kember's captors to release him.

The bail decision by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission comes a month after the cleric won an appeal against efforts to deport him to Jordan. Ms Smith will seek to subject him to a 22-hour curfew after he is released from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire. She said: "I am extremely disappointed that the courts have granted Abu Qatada bail, albeit with very strict conditions. Public safety is our main priority and we will take all steps necessary to protect the public."

Ten years ago Qatada was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998. He gained notoriety in this country after calling on British Muslims to martyr themselves, and tapes of his sermons were found in a flat in Germany used by some of the September 11 hijackers.

The Government had intended to deport him after it agreed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan that terror suspects would not be harmed after their return. But the Court of Appeal concluded last month that because of the issue of evidence obtained by torture in Jordan, he could not be deported.

Tony McNulty, the Home Office minister, said at the time that he was confident the preacher would be deported and that "in the meantime, he remains behind bars".

Last month, plans to deport 12 Libyans were also abandoned because of doubts over a memorandum of understanding signed between Britain and Libya. They are now also likely to be eligible for bail.

The Government is appealing against the ban on deporting Qatada and other suspects to countries with poor human rights records. Not a single forcible removal of an alleged terrorist has yet taken place.

When Qatada was arrested in February 2001, he had £170,000 cash in his possession, including £805 in an envelope marked "For the mujahedin in Chechnya". He went on the run 10 months later, when new laws were passed allowing terror suspects to be detained without charge or trial, becoming one of Britain's most wanted men.

He was finally arrested in an armed raid on a council house in south London in October 2002 and held in Belmarsh prison in south-east London.

Mr Justice Collins, former chairman of SIAC, said in 2004 that Qatada was "a truly dangerous individual".