AMMAN, 11 August 2005 — Jordan signed a deal with Britain yesterday that enables British courts to deport Jordanians who incite or condone acts of terrorism in preaching or writing. Under the agreement, Jordan would have to guarantee a deportee would not be tortured or otherwise mistreated at home and would not face the death penalty.

Jordan’s Interior Minister Awni Yarfas signed the memorandum of understanding with British charge d’affaires Pat Philips, saying it guarantees that the “personal and civil rights” of those expelled will be respected. Those expelled would have the right to a lawyer and not to be ill-treated, Yarfas said. But Yarfas was noncommittal over the possibility of Abu Qatada being sent back to Jordan.

“London has not yet informed us of its intention to send (Qatada) back to Jordan and the kingdom has not asked for his extradition,” he said. Qatada is suspected of inspiring Mohammed Atta, the leader of the Sept. 11 hijackers, and shoe bomber Richard Reid, who tried to blow up a plane over the Atlantic in December 2001.

“The agreement guarantees the civil rights of individuals under existing Jordanian laws and the international human rights conventions,” Yarfas told reporters at the signing ceremony. Britain’s plans include powers to expel foreign nationals who incite terrorism, shut down mosques breeding fanaticism and blacklist clerics, websites and bookshops. It hopes to agree similar arrangements with other countries.

British authorities say 18 videotapes of Qatada’s sermons were found in an apartment in Germany used by three of the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. British courts must first rule on any deportation.

Jordan’s human rights groups, independent politicians and the powerful mainstream Islamist party with parliamentary seats denounced the accord, saying Amman should not back Britain’s sweeping anti-terror laws that were unpopular in Jordan.

“This shows that Jordan is supporting Britain and we should not acquiesce in these moves but rather confront them by condemnation. People do not support violations of human rights,” Sheikh Hamza Mansour, head of the Islamic Action Front, told Reuters. Mansour criticized the measures, saying they would infringe the legal rights of any deportees who would face trial in a Jordanian military court that human rights activists say already has few legal safeguards.

“The British authorities are acting hysterically these days after the bombings and are abandoning the democratic values they have always said they proudly upheld,” Mansour said.

Mamdouh Al-Abbadi, deputy speaker of Parliament, said the victims of the new British policies would be Muslims and Arabs who enjoyed political asylum in Britain. “The mother of democracies is now giving up its principles to get rid of extremist Arabs who long enjoyed sanctuary to express their views and deporting them to their countries to get jailed there,” Abbadi said.

International human rights activists including Amnesty International have criticized Jordan for ill treatment of both political and criminal suspects and say this is facilitated by detaining them incommunicado for long periods before trial.

Some lawyers also cite a rise in reported cases of physical humiliation and degrading treatment in prisons. Jordan denies there are systematic violations of prisoners’ rights and that torture is used in its jails.

The British government said in July that it had reached an initial agreement to allow it to deport Jordanian nationals wanted in their country without fear of mistreatment, the first in a series of similar accords with other countries.

Under international law, Britain is prevented from sending people back to a country where they might face inhuman or degrading treatment and has a policy of not returning people to face the death penalty.

But rights group Amnesty International slammed the agreement as “not worth the paper it’s written on”.