LONDON, 20 November 2003 — A radical Muslim scholar named by Britain as the inspiration for the lead Sept. 11 hijacker boycotted the first day of his appeal before a tribunal yesterday against his detention without trial.

Abu Qatada, 43, Britain’s highest-profile terror suspect, has been accused of funding and inspiring militants worldwide from a base in London. He was arrested in October 2002 after disappearing in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

“(Qatada) is a spiritual adviser to terrorist groups and Islamic extremists in the UK and overseas,” government lawyer Wyn Williams told the hearing, much of which was held behind closed doors on national security grounds. “(He) has also provided financial support to terrorists.”

In papers issued at the hearing, the government said Qatada was directly linked to top Al-Qaeda figures and inspired attacks in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Chechnya as well as the Sept. 11 strikes on the United States.

It said videos of Qatada’s sermons were found in the Hamburg flat of Mohamed Atta, who US officials say led the Al-Qaeda cell which flew the first plane into the World Trade Center.

Qatada’s lawyers said he had no faith in the appeals process. “He feels certain that the result of this appeal is a foregone conclusion,” his lawyer Ben Emmerson told the tribunal. “He entirely denies any involvement in terrorism.”

Qatada is the most prominent of 16 foreign detainees held with no charge in a top security prison under powers brought in after the Sept. 11 attacks. The identities of most of the others must be kept secret by court order.

Britain has not charged them with any crime and is holding them under laws that allow foreign “suspected international terrorists” to be jailed indefinitely without trial.

Qatada’s case is being heard by a “special immigration appeals commission” run by the government, not a court.

Under the anti-terror laws, the authorities do not have to present evidence he committed a crime, but are required to show “reasonable grounds to suspect” he has links to terrorism.

Human rights groups have condemned the process and called for the government to present its evidence in open court.

The hearing continues tomorrow.

Meanwhile, German prosecutors demanded a five-year jail term for a Jordanian man suspected of plotting attacks on Jewish targets, saying that only his arrest had prevented them being carried out.

In summing up, federal prosecutor Dirk Fernholz said he had asked for half the maximum sentence of 10 years because the accused had provided “an abundance of detail” about the Al-Tawhid extremist group and its operations.

Shadi Mohd Mustafa Abdellah stands accused of belonging to Al-Tawhid and plotting attacks on two Jewish restaurants in the city of Duesseldorf and a Jewish community center in Berlin.

He is also charged with and passport forgery.