LONDON, 27 February 2007 — Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim religious leader and suspected key Al-Qaeda figure, lost an appeal yesterday against deportation from Britain to Jordan.
British authorities hailed the decision, saying Abu Qatada — in custody since a clampdown on Islamists following the July 2005 suicide bombings in London — was a clear threat to national security.
“We welcome the decision ... that Abu Qatada presents a threat to our national security and can be deported,” said Home Secretary John Reid after the ruling.
Qatada appealed last year against his planned deportation to Jordan, where he has been sentenced in his absence to life imprisonment for terrorist offenses.
The Muslim cleric argued that he risked being tortured if deported to Jordan — a claim rejected by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruling on the appeal.
“We have concluded that there is no real risk of persecution of the appellant were he now to be returned with the safeguards and in the circumstances which now apply to him,” said a SIAC statement.
The ruling is not the final stage in the deportation process: Qatada can lodge a new appeal.
British immigration authorities seeking his deportation said in 2004 that Qatada was “heavily involved, indeed was at the center in the United Kingdom of terrorist activities associated with Al-Qaeda.” Former SIAC chairman judge Lawrence Collins described him at the time as “a truly dangerous individual.”
“We have no doubt that his beliefs are extreme and are indeed a perversion of Islam for the purposes of encouraging violence against non-Muslims and Muslims who are or have been supportive of Americans in particular,” he added.
Born Omar Mahmud Mohammed Otman in Bethlehem, Qatada arrived in Britain in September 1993 on a forged United Arab Emirates passport and claimed asylum. He gained refugee status in 1994 and was allowed to remain here for four years.
He disappeared before new anti-terror laws allowed for the detention of security suspects without charge in 2001. Qatada, who had applied in 1998 to remain indefinitely in Britain, was eventually arrested in October 2002 and spent three years in the high-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London.
He was released when the courts said the measures were unlawful, but was subjected to a control order, a form of house arrest restricting his movements and contacts.
He returned to prison in August 2005 as part of a crackdown against extremists after the London suicide bombings of July 7 that year which left 56 people dead.
At the time the British government said the burly firebrand, who stands at more than six feet tall and weighs more than 127 kg, had “long-established” links to extremists across the world, including Al-Qaeda and armed groups in Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt.
Others said to have sought his advice include “shoe bomber” Richard Reid and the “20th hijacker” Zacarias Moussaoui, the only man to have been convicted in connection with the “9/11” attacks.
Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon has previously called him Al-Qaeda’s “spiritual head” in Europe.
Although Abu Qatada claims never to have met Bin Laden, he has backed his beliefs and methods, according to the SIAC court, which said it had heard he was linked to Al-Qaeda’s “No. 2,” Ayman Al-Zawahiri, and was in “close contact” with Khaled Al-Fawwaz.
