This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
CONTROVERSIAL cleric Abu Qatada was cleared of terror offences at his trial in Jordan today.
Abu Qatada, who is a Jordanian national, was deported from Britain last July after a 10-year battle which became a source of major embarrassment to the British government.
He has been facing allegations that he plotted al-Qaida inspired attacks but was acquitted yesterday on charges of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism.
He still faces separate charges at the state security court in the capital Amman relating to a terror plot in Jordan.
The radical cleric is facing a retrial, having previously been convicted in absentia by a Jordanian court in 1999.
Serious concerns were expressed about the potential use of evidence obtained by torture in both that and any subsequent retrial.
Abu Qatada, who had never been charged with any offence in Britain, yet whom the government claimed was a threat to national security, finally lost his fight against deportation after British courts accepted Jordanian assurances that neither torture, nor evidence extracted by torture would be used against him.
During yesterday’s hearing the prosecution argued that Abu Qatada was a mentor to jihadist cells in Jordan while in Britain, providing spiritual and material support to a campaign of violence during the late 1990s.
But the court quashed the conspiracy charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence.
It postponed a hearing the additional charges until September 7.
Speaking following the acquittal, senior British government figures defended their decision to deport him.
Immigration and Security Minister James Brokenshire said: "Abu Qatada's retrial in Jordan has been made possible thanks to this government's determination to successfully deport him.
"While the courts in Jordan have acquitted Qatada of one of the two charges against him, it is right that due process is allowed to take place in his own country. We await a verdict on the remaining charge.
"The UK courts agreed that Qatada posed a threat to national security in the UK, so we are pleased that we were able to remove him.
“He is subject to a deportation order which means he will be unable to return to the UK."
