Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Abu Qatada deportation case may go to supreme court

Home Office asks for permission to go to UK's highest court in latest bid to deport radical Islamist cleric to Jordan

The government's protracted legal campaign to deport the radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada may go to the UK's highest court.

The Home Office announced on Wednesday it was seeking permission from the court of appeal to take the case to the supreme court after judges last month rejected the latest in a long line of attempts to remove the terror suspect to Jordan.

Last month Qatada was ordered to return to Belmarsh prison for allegedly breaching his bail conditions.

In March, court of appeal judges backed an earlier ruling that Abu Qatada, also known as Omar Othman, could not be deported due to fears that evidence obtained through torture would be used against him.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We have today asked the court of appeal for permission to appeal its recent decision on Abu Qatada to the supreme court.

"The government remains committed to deporting this dangerous man and we continue to work with the Jordanians to address the outstanding legal issues preventing deportation."

The home secretary, Theresa May, is attempting to overturn a ruling last November by Mr Justice Mitting sitting at the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) in London that assurances offered so far by Amman were insufficient to prove that evidence obtained by torture would not be used in a retrial of Qatada for two bomb attacks in 1998 that he has already been convicted of in absentia.

The cleric, who was first detained in Britain as an international terror suspect in 2002, was released on bail last November to a house in north-west London under a 16-hour curfew and strict restrictions on whom he can meet and communicate with.

The Siac ruling said there remained a real risk that statements by two alleged co-conspirators, Abu Hawsher and Al-Hamasher, which had been obtained by torture, would be admitted in his retrial by the state security court.

Mitting said that risk remained until there was a change to the Jordanian code of criminal practice and/or a ruling by its constitutional court that such torture-tainted evidence could not be used. The only other alternative was for the Jordanian prosecutor to prove "to a high standard that the statements were not procured by torture".

The ruling followed a decision by the European court of human rights made final last May that while Qatada did not face a risk of being tortured if returned to Amman he did face the real possibility of a trial based on torture-tainted evidence. The Strasbourg judges said that would amount to a "flagrant denial of justice". The home secretary did not appeal against that ruling.

The law lords – the UK's highest appellate court until the creation of the supreme court – have already considered Qatada's case. In February 2009, six months before the new court was established, they unanimously approved his deportation to Jordan after accepting the country's assurances.


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Owen Bowcott 17 Apr, 2013


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/17/abu-qatada-deportation-supreme-court
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