May Vows To Continue Efforts To Deport Qatada

Home Secretary Theresa May has said the Government will continue efforts to deport radical Muslim preacher Abu Qatada after a judge ruled he should be released on bail.

Qatada, once described as "Osama bin Laden's right hand man in Europe", has been detained for more than six years while fighting deportation to Jordan.

But after human right judges in Europe said he could not be sent to Jordan without assurances that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him, a British judge ruled he should be freed on bail.

Answering an urgent question in the Commons, Mrs May said she would still work to get Qatada out of the country before this summer's Olympics.

"We will do everything we can within the existing legal regime to deport Qatada and we're doing everything we can to reform that regime to avoid these cases in future," she said.

"The right place for a terrorist is a prison cell - the right place for a foreign terrorist is a foreign prison cell far away from Britain."

Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terrorist attacks in 1998 and featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.

He is expected to be released from the high-security Long Lartin jail in Worcestershire in the coming days.

Qatada will be subject to stringent bail conditions which will confine him to his home for all but two one-hour periods a day and regulate who he can meet.

Mrs May said: "If any of these conditions are breached, he will be rearrested and we will seek his immediate redetention.

"But however strict the bail conditions, I continue to believe that Qatada should remain behind bars."

Mr Justice Mitting, president of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) which considered the case, said that while Qatada's detention to date had been justified, "the time will arrive quite soon when continuing detention or deprivation of liberty" would have to stop.

He gave the Home Secretary three months to show British diplomats were making progress in negotiations with Jordan or risk seeing Qatada's bail conditions removed.