Abu Qatada's Family Follow Him Out of Britain

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The family of radical preacher Abu Qatada have left Britain for good after finally dropping their marathon battle to stay in the country.

His wife and five children left their taxpayer funded home in north-west London and were driven to Heathrow Airport by officials from the Home Office just after lunchtime.

They then boarded the 5.05pm American Airlines flight to Amman, where Qatada is currently awaiting trial of terrorism charges.

The family’s departure signals a victory for the Home Office, which successfully secured Qatada’s deportation from Britain last month, following a decade long legal battle, which is estimated to have cost the taxpayer in excess of £3 million.

A spokesman for the Home Office confirmed that the family had left and said they had also abandoned their bid to be granted the right to live here permanently.

The spokesman said: “Abu Qatada’s wife and five children have now left the UK. The family has formally agreed to stop an outstanding application for indefinite leave to remain.” » | Martin Evans, Crime Correspondent | Thursday, August 15, 2013

2am Sunday: The Time We Finally Boot Out Abu Qatada

EXPRESS: A MASSIVE security operation will swing into action when a jet carrying hate preacher Abu Qatada out of Britain touches down in the Jordanian desert

Qatada, 53, is due finally to be put on a plane at RAF Northolt in west London around 2am on Sunday.

It will carry British officials and Jordanians who will take charge of the Islamic fundamentalist when it lands at an isolated airstrip.

Qatada, who faces terrorism charges in his home country, is expected to be taken to the maximum security Muwaqqar prison in a military zone near the capital Amman.

Once inside the jail he will be put in solitary confinement until Jordan’s authorities are ready to quiz him about his alleged involvement in two bomb plots in the late 1990s. The father-of-five was found guilty in his absence of terror offences and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1999. » | Friday, July 05, 2013

Qatada Agrees to Leave UK
A controversial Muslim cleric says he'll leave the UK voluntarily, if the Jordanian government agrees to give him a fair trial there.

Abu Qatada Will Leave Britain
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Abu Qatada, the Islamist cleric, will voluntarily return to Jordan if a new treaty on the use of evidence obtained by torture is ratified by the Jordanian parliament, a tribunal was told today.

His co-operation was announced by his barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, at the beginning of an immigration hearing to decide whether Qatada can be released from prison.

The Government has been trying to deport him to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999, for nearly eight years. » | Agencies | Friday, May 10, 2013

Qatada 'Should Be Behind Bars' Theresa May Makes Deal with Jordan to Deport Hate Cleric
EXPRESS: THERESA MAY has revealed a new treaty with Jordan might make it possible for Britain to finally be rid of Abu Qatada, as Downing Street confirmed it is considering a temporary withdrawal from the European Convention of Human Rights.


In a statement in the House of Commons today the Home Secretary argued she has not been defeated yet – depsite successive governments having sought the deportation of Qatada since 2001.

A new treaty signed by the UK and Jordanian governments will "finally make possible" the deportation of Qatada, Mrs May said today.

However, Mrs May warned the House of Commons that even when the new treaty is fully ratified, it will not mean that terror suspect Qatada will be "on a plane to Jordan within days" as he will still be able to appeal against any new decisions.

The new agreement includes guarantees that will provide the UK courts with assurances that Qatada will not face evidence that might have been obtained by torture in a re-trial in Jordan, Mrs May said.

In a sign of how desperate the Governement has become to remove Qatada, Number 10 also revealed today that Britain may even withdraw from the European Convention of Human Rights temporarily. » | Charlotte Meredith | Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Hate Preacher Abu Qatada Told He Can Stay in Britain as Theresa May Loses Appeal against Ruling that He Cannot Be Deported
MAIL ONLINE: Court of Appeal rejects latest attempt by Home Secretary to have Qatada sent back to Jordan / Released from jail in February last year under strict bail conditions / Returned to prison this month for breaching rules / Received over £500,000 in legal aid in ten-year battle with Government

Home Secretary Theresa May today lost her appeal court challenge to finally kick radical preacher Abu Qatada out of the UK.

In a major blow to the government's hopes of ever removing the radical hate preacher, the Court of Appeal ruled that he can stay in Britain.

Mrs May insisted 'this is not the end of the road' and will make another legal challenge against the ruling of judges in November that Qatada could not be deported to Jordan to face justice over alleged terror offences.

Qatada is said to have wide and high-level support among extremists, and featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.

Mrs May's legal team argued at a recent one-day hearing in London that Qatada was a 'truly dangerous' individual who escaped deportation through 'errors of law'. Read on and comment » | Matt Chorley, MailOnline Political Editor | Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Abu Qatada Arrested After Breaching Bail Conditions
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Radical preacher Abu Qatada has been arrested for allegedly breaching his bail conditions, days ahead of the Government's latest deportation bid in court.


Qatada, 52, once described as Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, was led away from his north London home on Friday after police raids at his address.

Specialist officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command searched Qatada’s tax-payer funded home for 12 hours before he was arrested. » | Josie Ensor and Hayley Dixon | Saturday, March 09, 2013

Qatada Intends to Sue for £10million Says His Family: Hate Preacher Wants Compensation for Years Spent behind Bars

THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: Abu Qatada has told his family that he plans to sue the British government for £10million for ‘unlawful detention’.

The hate preacher has said he wants compensation for his ‘extended mistreatment’ after a judge released him from jail last week and blocked his deportation to Jordan to face terror charges.

Qatada was awarded a far smaller payout from the European Court of Human Rights three years ago after judges ruled he had been unfairly detained in Belmarsh high security jail without trial.

But the cleric’s family said that his hopes of a much larger compensation win have been boosted after the special immigration court ruled last Monday that there was a real risk that evidence obtained through torture might be used against him if he was sent home to Jordan to face trial.

The cleric, once described by a judge as Osama Bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe, has been bailed to his family home in London after spending much of the past seven years behind bars.

Qatada lives in North London with his wife and five children on state handouts said to total £1,000 a month. » | Tom Kelly | Sunday, November 18, 2012

David Cameron: I Am Fed Up That Abu Qatada Is Still At Large In UK
Prime Minister David Cameron has said he feels exasperated by radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada winning an appeal to stay in Britain.

Read the article here | Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Abu Qatada Wins Appeal against Deportation to Jordan

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Terror suspect Abu Qatada has won his battle against deportation to Jordan to face trial.

The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) upheld his appeal after his lawyers claimed he would not get a fair trial.

The radical cleric, once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was convicted of terror charges in Jordan [in] his absence in 1999.

Home Secretary Theresa May had been given assurances by Jordan that no evidence gained through torture would be used against him.

A Home Office spokesman said the Government will apply to appeal against the decision.

He said: "The Government strongly disagrees with this ruling. We have obtained assurances not just in relation to the treatment of Qatada himself, but about the quality of the legal processes that would be followed throughout his trial. » | Telegraph reporters | Monday, November 12, 2012

Abu Qatada Denied Bail to Allow MI5 to Focus on Olympics
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Abu Qatada, the Islamist cleric, was denied bail today because of the impossible strain it would place on the police and MI5 if he absconded during the Olympics.

The extremist preacher, once described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", sought again to be freed from jail while he fights deportation to his native Jordan.

But a senior immigration judge ruled that he should remain in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London, expressing concerns that Qatada's supporters in al Qaeda could help him to escape if he were bailed.

Mr Justice Mitting said if the 51-year-old firebrand cleric absconded, the security services would either have to divert resources away from protecting the Olympics and Paralympics to find him or make locating him a lower priority.
"I am not going to take that risk, and it would be wrong for me to do so," he said. » | Sam Marsden | Monday, May 28, 2012

Abu Qatada Applies to Be Freed on Bail

THE GUARDIAN: Islamist cleric could be released on stringent conditions while courts take months to settle issue of deportation

The radical Islamist cleric, Abu Qatada, who faces deportation to Jordan as a national security threat, is to apply to be freed on bail at the end of the month.

The Judicial Communications Office said that the date for Qatada's bail hearing had been set for 28 May at the special immigration appeals commission in London.

Qatada, whom a Spanish judge once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was briefly freed in February on the most draconian bail conditions ever imposed, including a 22-hour curfew. » | Alan Travis, home affairs editor | Friday, May 18, 2012

May Got Date Wrong But Qatada Appeal Bid Rejected Anyway

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Theresa May did get Abu Qatada’s appeal deadline date wrong, judges have ruled, but had a narrow escape after they rejected his case anyway.

The European Court of Human Rights (Echr) concluded that the hate cleric’s eleventh hour appeal bid against deportation was submitted within time but ruled there were no grounds to hear it.

However, the decision could clear the way for the hate cleric to now sue the Home Office over the blunder.

Mrs May was accused of taking an “unacceptable risk” and faced calls to apologise for “a potentially catastrophic error of judgment”.

Despite the ruling, Qatada will remain in the country for at least another year because of a separate, ongoing legal challenge against deportation to Jordan, where he faces trial for alleged terror offences.

His lawyers also launched a fresh bid to have him re-released on bail while the court battles continue.

It means yet another legal merry-go-round in a ten year saga that has already cost the taxpayer up to £3 million. » | Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Al-Qaeda 'Will Free British Hostage' If Abu Qatada Can Go Where He Wants
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an affilate of the terrorist organisation, have offered to free a British-South African hostage if Abu Qatada, the radical cleric, is allowed to choose a country for his extradition, according to the US monitoring service SITE.

AQIM also threatened that Britain would "open the door of evil" unto its country and people should it send the imam back to his native Jordan where he faces jail, the report said.

The group which is Al-Qaeda's North African franchise - has been holding Stephen Malcolm and two other western men hostage since abducting them last November in the northern Mali desert city of Timbuktu.

Britain has been trying to deport Abu Qatada for more than six years, arguing he is a threat to national security, to Jordan, where the cleric was convicted in 1998 in absentia of involvement in terror attacks. » | Source: AFP | Monday, April 30, 2012

Bundling Bearded Windbags on to Jets Won't Solve Anything

MAIL ONLINE: Theresa May, one of nature’s soppy liberals, is struggling to seem decisive over the deportation of the Bethlehem-born windbag Abu Qatada. The trouble is, Mrs May isn’t even any good at pretending to be tough.

Labour and Tory politicians love this sort of charade. It makes them look as if they are guarding the nation against the Islamist threat. Like so much of what they do, it is a noisy, empty fraud on the public.

They exaggerate hugely. Like several other furry-faced old blowhards, Qatada is said to have been Osama Bin Laden’s closest henchman. Perhaps he was. Perhaps he wasn’t. He isn’t now.

He cannot really be much use as a Terrorist Godfather now that he has been on TV, and MI5 and the police watch his every movement. Well, can he? Think about it.

It has all gone wrong for Mrs May because she and her department are not very good at what they do. But really the British people ought to have seen through this fake controversy by now.

The real Islamist threat to Britain and the rest of Europe comes from uncontrolled mass migration from Muslim countries. Combined with our national refusal to defend our British, Christian culture, this is rapidly creating a powerful and influential Muslim vote which will increasingly change our country.

Given a few more decades, it will have profoundly altered this country. I have long suspected that this island will be more or less Muslim within a century, and it will be the fault of this generation. It would be perfectly legitimate for a respectable, law-abiding and civilised political party to act now to prevent this.

But instead they leave the subject to steroid-swallowing nutcases like Anders Breivik, or creepy opportunists like the BNP.

Millions reasonably worry about this. But they are dismissed as extremists by a liberal establishment which views robust defence of Britain’s culture as bigotry. » | Peter Hitchens | Saturday, April 21, 2012

Al Qaeda Militants Warn of Terror Attack in Britain If Abu Qatada Is Deported

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Militant group al Shabaab has warned that Britain will face a terror attack if it deports Islamic cleric Abu Qatada.

The Al Qaeda militants warned of a “disaster” for Britain if the Government attempts to send Qatada back to Jordan.

SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors online activity from terrorist groups, said al-Shabaab had issued a warning on militant forums.

"The British public is also forewarned that it will be the British government, as a result of its imprudence, that shall be liable for any disaster that befalls them, or their national interests," the statement said, according to SITE.

It comes a week after Al-Qaeda threatened to attack Britain if it decides to extradite Qatada.

In a statement signed by Al-Qaeda’s general command and published on jihadist forums, the terror network said Abu Qatada's extradition would “open the gates of evil” on “Britain and its citizens everywhere.”

“We warn the British government against extraditing Sheikh Abu Qatada to Jordan,” where he faces terror charges, said the statement, which called on London to “act with reason and wisdom … or it will regret it.” » | Tom Whitehead and James Kirkup | Friday, April 20, 2012

Abu Qatada Allowed to Appeal Deportation as Home Office Accused of Arrest Blunder

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: The deportation of Abu Qatada descended into chaos today as it emerged the Home Office may have ordered his arrest too early meaning he still has time to appeal.

The Home Office believed that the three month deadline for Qatada to appeal had run out at midnight on Monday, and arrested him at his home ahead of his deportation.

However today his lawyers launched an appeal with the European Court of Human Rights arguing he still had a further 24 hours in which to launch his bid.

It could pave the way for a lengthy legal dispute and allow Qatada's lawyers to argue for him to be released again on bail.

Qatada's legal team claims that judges at the European Court of Human Rights were wrong three months ago when they ruled that he would not be at risk of torture if returned to Jordan, a court spokeswoman said.

The court's Grand Chamber will decide whether to hear his appeal, but the radical cleric, once described by a judge as Osama bin Laden's right hand man in Europe, cannot be deported until the court has reached a decision. » | Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Abu Qatada Arrested
Hate preacher Abu Qatada can be deported, Home Secretary says: Hate preacher Abu Qatada can be deported to Jordan after the Government received assurances from the Jordanian government about his treatment, Home Secretary Theresa May said today. » | Hannah Furness | Tuesday, April 17, 2012


Theresa May deserves praise for her tenacity: The Home Secretary should be congratulated for her determination to kick out Abu Qatada. » | Telegraph View | Tuesday, April 17, 2012

TELEGRAPH BLOGS – ED WEST: Abu Qatada is a microcosm of everything that's wrong with Britain's dimwitted immigration and welfare systems » | Ed West | Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Related »

Abu Qatada Arrested Pending New Extradition
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Hate cleric Abu Qatada has been arrested and returned to custody pending a fresh attempt to deport him to Jordan.

Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is expected to tell MPs this afternoon that an agreement has been reached with Jordan to ensure his removal.

Assurances have been sought to allay fears by the European Court of Human Rights that he will face trial with evidence obtained by torture.

However, despite facing a fresh deportation order, Qatada’s lawyers will be able to launch a fresh legal challenge against his removal. » | Tom Whitehead, Security Editor | Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Next stop Jordan for hate cleric »

Qatada, the Happiest Man in England: Brother Tells of Hate-preacher's Delight at Being Handed a More Expensive Taxpayer-funded Home

THE MAIL ON SUNDAY: Terror suspect's new home has more bedrooms, a bigger garden and more fittings / His family are said to be 'delighted' at the move / The 51-year-old had requested a move from previous home worth £400,000

Abu Qatada has been upgraded to a larger taxpayer-funded home since his release from jail last month, the Mail can reveal.

The terror suspect has told relatives in his native Jordan that he is the ‘happiest man in England’ after he was rehoused to the more expensive property.

His wife and five children are also said to be ‘delighted’ with the move, because their new home has more bedrooms, a bigger garden and more modern fittings.

Qatada, who was once described by a judge as ‘Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe’, asked to switch houses a week after being freed from Long Lartin jail in February.

The hate preacher had initially moved into a £400,000 home in Wembley, North London – organised by the local authority – where his family were said to be paying £1,900 a month rent which they funded through benefits.

But the 51-year-old requested a move after complaints from the property’s owner, who was furious to discover he had unwittingly allowed the cleric to become his tenant.

Qatada’s brother, Ibrahim Othman, said: ‘He told us they have now given him a very nice new place, bigger than the first house he went to after the British let him go.

‘He is really enjoying his new home and so are his family. The inside is very modern and has been done up more nicely, it has more bedrooms and a larger garden.

‘It is better for the family. They are all very happy in the larger house.

‘My brother cannot work so the British government fund his family to live there. The new house is costing more but he does not have to pay it because there is no way he can earn money.’ Read on and comment » | Tom Kelly | Sunday, March 25, 2012