London: Britain on Monday launched a new legal attempt to deport radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, who is wanted in Jordan on terrorism charges and has been described as Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe.
The case, which has dragged on for years and infuriated successive governments, has prompted Home Secretary Theresa May to suggest that Britain could withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights.
May is now appealing a November ruling by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission which said that Qatada may not face fair trial in Jordan and blocked his deportation. The judges said there was a risk that evidence obtained by torture could be used in the trial.
The one-day hearing before three senior judges comes just days after Qatada was rearrested for breaking his strict bail conditions.
The 52 year old has repeatedly used human rights legislation to challenge deportation attempts. Britain considers him a threat to national security.
In Jordan he was convicted in absentia in 1999 for his involvement in planned terrorist attacks. However his home country has promised that he would be retried on his return, after a deal was struck with the British government in 2005.
He first arrived in Britain in 1993 and was allowed to stay after claiming asylum. Before he was released on bail in November he had been imprisoned for seven years as Britain attempted to deport him.
On Saturday May said the Conservatives would scrap the Human Rights Act, which allows complainants to take their cases to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg as a last resort, if they win re-election in 2015.
She told a Conservative party gathering that the legislation was preventing Britain from effectively fighting crime and immigration.
“When Strasbourg constantly moves the goalposts and prevents the deportation of dangerous men like Abu Qatada, we have to ask ourselves, to what end are we signatories to the convention?” she said.
Prime Minister David Cameron last year said he was “completely fed up with the fact that this man is still at large in our country.”
