Qatada Given Bail After Winning Latest Appeal

Abu Qatada is to be freed after winning his latest appeal against extradition, in a major blow to Home Secretary Theresa May.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) decided the radical cleric could not have a fair trial in Jordan because evidence obtained via torture could be used against him.

This is despite the Home Secretary securing assurances from the country that this would not happen.

Qatada will be released on bail on Tuesday after Home Office lawyers failed to persuade Siac judges he should stay behind bars.

They insisted that the Palestinian-born Jordanian cleric, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, poses "an enormous risk to national security".

But Edward Fitzgerald QC, for Qatada, declared: "Enough is enough. It has gone on for many years now. There is no prospect of deportation taking place within a reasonable time, in fact there is no prospect at present of deportation at all."

The successful appeal is the latest twist in a battle that has now lasted more than a decade.

Siac has already rejected the Government's application to challenge the decision but permission can still be sought at the Court of Appeal.

Robin Tam QC, for the Home Office, said: "You have made a legal error in setting the threshold too low. We should have the possibility to ask the Court of Appeal to consider that."

The ruling is a blow to Home Secretary Theresa May

The Home Office said the Government "strongly disagrees" with the ruling.

"We have obtained assurances not just in relation to the treatment of Qatada himself, but about the quality of the legal processes that would be followed throughout his trial," a spokesman said.

"Indeed, today's ruling found that 'the Jordanian judiciary, like their executive counterparts, are determined to ensure that the appellant will receive, and be seen to receive, a fair retrial'. We will therefore seek leave to appeal."

Mrs May will make a statement in the Commons later.

Qatada, once described by a judge as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was allowed to stay in Britain in 1994 but was convicted of terror charges in Jordan in his absence in 1999.

The cleric, who is said to have wide and high-level support among extremists, featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.

In December 2001, he became one of Britain's most wanted men after going on the run from his home in west London. He was arrested almost a year later and detained in Belmarsh prison.

He has been in and out of jail in the intervening years and was rearrested in April amid hopes in Government that he could finally be removed from the country.

His legal team lodged a fresh appeal at the European Court of Human Rights but lost, kicking the fight back to the British courts and Siac.

At the hearing last month, Jordan expert Professor Beverley Milton-Edwards, had warned that a fair trial for Qatada there was "unlikely".

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