Euro Judges To Rule On Abu Qatada Appeal

Judges from the European Court of Human Rights are meeting to decide if radical cleric Abu Qatada can appeal against deportation.

A panel of five judges in Strasbourg will discuss whether to refer the case to the court's Grand Chamber.

Qatada lodged a last-minute appeal in April despite attempts by Home Secretary Theresa May to return him to his native Jordan before the beginning of May.

It is not clear when the decision will be announced and the judges are unlikely ever to give the reasons for their decision.

Qatada's appeal, lodged on April 17, sparked a row over whether the three-month appeal deadline from the court's original decision on January 17 expired on the night of April 16 or 17.

Very few Grand Chamber appeals are successful but if the appeal is granted, Qatada, 51, is likely to apply to a senior immigration judge for bail and could be freed from Belmarsh high-security jail within weeks.

His legal team are challenging the court's decision that he could be sent back to Jordan with diplomatic assurances that he would not be tortured.

It is separate from the court's initial bar on deportation which required the Government to first get assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against Qatada if he is sent back.

Repeated failed attempts by UK governments over the last 10 years to deport the radical cleric have cost nearly £1m in legal fees, Government figures show.

Qatada, said to have been Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and faces a retrial in his home country.

He also featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.

Since 2001, when fears of terror attacks grew in the aftermath of 9/11, Qatada has successfully challenged every attempt by the Government to deport him.