Home secretary tells MPs she finds it unacceptable that bailed Islamist cleric cannot be deported to Jordan
The home secretary, Theresa May, has tried to assuage cross-party anger over the decision to grant bail to the radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, telling MPs it "simply wasn't acceptable" that such dangerous foreign criminals could not be deported.
Labour MPs, including two former home secretaries, voiced strong concern on Tuesday over a judge's warning that in three months' time he will relax the stringent bail conditions imposed on Qatada if a fresh diplomatic attempt to secure a fair trial for him in Jordan proves unsuccessful.
May told MPs she wanted to deport Qatada "so he is not in this country when the Olympics come". But this may prove a forlorn hope as his lawyers have already warned the special immigration appeals commission (Siac) – which made the decision to bail Qatada on Monday – that they will start a fresh round of litigation in the British courts if negotiations with Jordan clear the way for deportation.
Mr Justice Mitting made the decision to release Qatada in the wake of a judgment at the European court of human rights last month that sending Qatada back to Jordan to face a terrorist trial based on "torture-tainted evidence" would be a flagrant denial of justice. Qatada is expected to be released from Long Lartin maximum security jail within days.
May faced strong criticism from her own backbenchers, with several demanding immediate legislation be introduced to repeal the Human Rights Act and suspend Britain's membership of the European convention on human rights.
May assured them she shared their anger by telling them that she "disagreed vehemently" with the original European court of human rights ruling that blocked Qatada's deportation.
"I continue to believe Qatada should remain behind bars," she said. "The right place for a terrorist is a prison cell. The right place for a foreign terrorist is a foreign prison cell far away from Britain."
She told MPs Britain was "working very actively" to ensure the Strasbourg judges could not override the decisions of the British courts.
She said Qatada would only be released next week on the "most stringent bail conditions", including a 22-hour curfew, and would not be able to claim benefits. She implied that an original move to allow him to take his children to school during the remaining two hours of the day would not now go ahead: "The exact details have yet to be decided by Siac," she said.
Qatada's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, dismissed MPs' fears as a small storm: "He has been on bail before and somehow there wasn't a kerfuffle then. He has been under a control order before and there wasn't a kerfuffle then. I think one has to get a grip on reality here," she told the BBC.
Peirce said British judges had rejected sending people back to their home countries to face trial based on evidence extracted by torture: "That is something we say – our judges in this country say repeatedly – we will not stomach. So it isn't a European opinion superimposed on what the courts of this country would reject. It is the same message."
In the Commons, the home secretary was forced to answer an urgent question by Labour on the case. She confirmed that the Home Office strategy was to seek new diplomatic assurances that Qatada would not face a trial in Jordan based on evidence obtained by torture – the issue that led the Strasbourg court to block his deportation.
Home Office lawyers are considering whether to refer that decision to the Grand Chamber of the European court of human rights, but that move could add a further 18-24 months to the process.
Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, was granted bail on Monday by Mr Justice Mitting after hearing that he had spent almost nine years in detention without charge on the grounds of national security – the last six and half years under immigration powers, pending his deportation to Jordan.
May told MPs the Home Office had vigorously opposed efforts to grant Qatada bail: "However strict the bail conditions, I continue to believe that Qatada should remain behind bars. It simply isn't acceptable that after guarantees from the Jordanians about his treatment, after the British courts have found that he is dangerous, and after his removal has been approved by the highest courts in our land, we still cannot deport dangerous foreign nationals."
But two former Labour home secretaries, Jack Straw and David Blunkett, raised the prospect that Qatada will face much lighter bail conditions from April if the talks with Jordan fail.
Blunkett said that when Qatada went into hiding before he was first detained in October 2002 he had been found in a flat full of sophisticated communications equipment just 400m from MI5's headquarters. He said he feared for the situation when the 22-hour curfew on him was lifted.
Straw urged May to negotiate directly with the Jordanians, as he had tried before her, and warned that the coalition government's weaker form of control orders – terrorism prevention and investigation orders – would not provide the same level of public protection.
The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, pressed ministers to get directly involved in the negotiations with Jordan and suggested that May go back to Siac and ask that Qatada be kept in Long Lartin maximum security prison in Worcestershire while those discussions took place.