Radical cleric released under strict conditions
The radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada was released yesterday from a top security jail with stringent bail conditions.
He was driven from Long Lartin top security jail in Worcestershire, Britain, to rejoin his family amid suggestions that Jordan would be able to provide assurances enabling him to be deported to Amman.
Qatada, 51, once described as Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, was freed with 23 conditions attached to his bail, including a ban on contacting 27 named individuals.
Mr Justice Mitting signed the bail order at 4pm yesterday, enabling Qatada to be released after spending 61⁄ years in custody fighting deportation.
Qatada is under a 22-hour curfew that allows him to leave home for a maximum of one hour twice a day and wearing an electronic tag.
The cleric is banned from attending a mosque, leading prayers, or making a statement without the prior approval of the Home Secretary.
Qatada is also barred from using the internet or a mobile phone.
If he should meet an acquaintance in a ‘‘genuinely chance situation’’, he ‘‘must, after any initial greeting, disengage himself from the situation,’’ the bail conditions said.
Among the 25 named individuals Qatada is banned from contacting is Ayman al-zawahiri, bin Laden’s successor as leader of al Qaeda.
Qatada won bail after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that he could not be deported without assurances from Jordan that evidence gained by torture would not be used against him.
The Home Secretary has three months to show that the Government is making progress in securing his deportation or risk Qatada being freed from his bail conditions.
Qatada was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998.
The cleric featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.