Abu Qatada Bail: Conditions Among Toughest Imposed Since 9/11

Qatada

First Posted: 13/02/2012 18:14 Updated: 13/02/2012 18:34   PA

A radical cleric who poses a serious risk to the UK's national security will live under some of the toughest bail conditions imposed since the September 11 terror attacks.

Abu Qatada will be banned from taking his youngest child to school, must stay inside his home for 22 hours a day and cannot talk to anyone who has not been vetted by the security services first when he is released from jail.

Once described by a judge as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, he will also be banned from meeting 27 named individuals, including new al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Qatada, 51, has been held for six-and-a-half years, more than any other detainee in modern immigration history, while fighting deportation.

But he will be released from Long Lartin high-security prison in Evesham, Worcestershire, 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.

Under the terms of his release, the Home Secretary has just three months to show the Government is making significant progress in securing his deportation or risk Qatada being freed from his bail conditions.

These were agreed between lawyers earlier today as a Jordanian government minister said the country was working with the UK Government to give the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) the assurances it needed.

Qatada will only be allowed outside his London home in a prescribed area for two one-hour periods each day - and he will be kept in during the school run, sources said.

An edited eight-page summary of the terms released by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) showed he will be banned from meeting 27 people, including al-Zawahiri, radical cleric Abu Hamza, and terror suspect Babar Ahmad.

Mahmoud Abu Rideh, who was previously under a control order in the UK, is also among the terror suspects on the list, despite the fact he is believed to have been killed in a missile strike in Afghanistan in 2010.

Qatada is also banned from using the internet and mobile phones, as well as meeting or communicating with anyone who is subject to Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures (Tpims), the Government's replacement for control orders.

The bail terms also ban Qatada from leading prayers, giving lectures or preaching, other than to offer advice to his wife and children at his home.

The cleric, who must wear an electronic tag and check in with the monitoring up to four times a day as he enters and leaves his home, is also banned from making any statement without the prior approval of the Home Secretary.

And should he meet an acquaintance in a "genuinely chance situation" in the street, he "must, after any initial greeting, disengage himself from the situation (whether by explaining the terms of his bail order or by making an excuse)".

The bail terms were released as Ayman Odeh, the Jordanian legislative affairs minister, 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 told Sky News.

"We are now making the necessary arrangements to do such assurances through the British Government. Very soon something will be done for this purpose."

Downing Street added that the Government was considering "all the options" for removing Qatada "at the earliest opportunity".

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 and Home Office Minister James Brokenshire is visiting the Jordanian capital, Amman, this week to continue talks.

But shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: "It is clear the Government has not done all it can to stop Abu Qatada being released from high-security prison today.

"In issues of national security, a more urgent and less cavalier approach is needed."

Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and has featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.

Since 2001, when fears of the domestic terror threat rose in the aftermath of the attacks, he has challenged, and ultimately thwarted, every attempt by the Government to detain and deport him.

Last month, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that sending Qatada back to face terror charges without assurances that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him would be a "flagrant denial of justice".

The ruling was the first time that the Strasbourg-based court has found an extradition would be in violation of Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, the right to a fair trial, which is enshrined in UK law under the Human Rights Act.

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10:19 PM on 02/13/2012
How exactly do they propose to stop him using mobile phones/internet? Everyone in his house will have a mobile - are they going to plant someone to look in at his window 24/7? They live in cloud cuckooland. How the rest of the world must laugh at us. If he had his way he'd blow up everyone in the country - why should we care a damn what happens to him?
09:50 PM on 02/13/2012
How does the uk get itself into a mess over the foreigners in this country,instead of being excessively political correct,why does it not do what the americans/australians /etc do, and boot them out now ,the only people who will complain are their friends and supporters,get on with it Cameron get them out now the whole country will back you.
09:20 PM on 02/13/2012
Isnt it way past time that this Govt grew a pair, told the European Court of Human Rights to do one, then take this gutless moron and send him back to Jordan like a man to take his trial ? He chose to follow the path of violence and hatred, nobody forced him.No doubt if some terrorist attack killed a lot of people in the UK he would be crowing with the rest of his ilk and applauding the murderers.
Jordan wants him, the USA want him, we definately do NOT want him or his type.
Lets be rid of him, his family, his supporters, and his lawyer who puts his clients rights above our safety.
08:39 PM on 02/13/2012
Are we expected to believe that any kind of bail conditions will make any difference to a man with his views and actions. Britain is its own worst enemy - see that Australia wasted no time in deporting an undesirable back to the UK though. When some shocking terrorist attack happens in Britain where will the people stand who agreed to keep him here.
08:51 PM on 02/13/2012
at the side of the terrorists hopefully to be blown up with them
08:31 PM on 02/13/2012
It has reached the point where UK born and bred are outsiders in their own country
10:12 PM on 02/13/2012
This is SO true..........I am beginning to understand what the Native Americans must have felt like.
majdf18148
I have nothing to declare but my curiosity
08:30 PM on 02/13/2012
Love the Yvette Cooper remark. Does she not realize we know how long this man was in detention during her party's reign and they did nothing, not a single thing, to deal properly with his case. If all of these tinpot politicians stopped trying to score brownie points off each other and got on dealing with affairs of the nation to the benefit of the electorate we would be in a far better place and so would he, from our perspective.
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mfa11e
Tell the truth ,regardless
08:16 PM on 02/13/2012
Weak,feeble minded,a joke.This country is the laughing stock of the world and the EC can make us do anything.All politicians are scared of giving the public the right to vote over staying in Europe under these conditions .They all know how we will vote.Until a party is voted in that will control criminals,control immigration ,evict foreigners that commit crimes we will continue to go down hill.Next time ,vote in a party that will do what the majority want .End of
09:45 AM on 02/14/2012
What you say is correct but where is this party that will represent the people
07:55 PM on 02/13/2012
The majority of news that we have to endure in the UK is about asians, pakistanis and muslims. Theres this piece of scum we wont deport, there's the pakistani chief copper whose a liar and his accuser whose an illegal immigrant, then there's the pakistani couple who tortured a vunerable girl, but they managed to claim her benefits. Sick and tired of this rabble dictating the news in the UK, had enough..and Ive had enough of a government that wont do anything about it but talk and moan. Post this Huff Post.
08:47 PM on 02/13/2012
The police officer was not a Pakistani born he is in fact from iran and this is from jordan how does that make him an asian a muslim maybe not a asian.