Judge restricts media reporting on landlord who says he did not realise he had rented a house to freed cleric's relatives
A landlord did not realise that he had rented a house to a family related to freed radical cleric Abu Qatada, a high court judge heard.
The landlord, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told Mr Justice Tugendhat he experienced "the worst day" after journalists discovered that Qatada was at the house.
He said he had let the house to a "mother with four children" and told how he "became panicked" with "people chasing after me".
Detail emerged on Thursday after Tugendhat made an order limiting what could be reported about the landlord.
A written judgment, which gave details of the order and included sections from a statement made by the landlord, was handed down by the judge at a hearing in London.
Qatada won an appeal against deportation from the UK to Jordan in the European court of human rights last month.
He was freed on bail on 13 February after being held for six-and-a-half years while fighting deportation.
The landlord told Tugendhat that journalists contacted him on 15 February and showed him pictures of Qatada at the door of the house.
"They kept asking me questions," said the landlord in the statement. "I did not know that the family were related to Abu Qatada. I did not know him. I told them, 'I do not have the name on the contract. I have the name of a mother with four children.'"
The landlord explained: "I became panicked … I can't live like this with people chasing after me and phoning and knocking at my door. I don't want my family dragged into this."
His statement added: "I can't deal with this. This is the worst day … I don't know if it will get worse again but this can't go on. I can't allow them [the mother and children] to stay in the house if things are like this. I will have to serve notice."
Tugendhat said he was imposing reporting restrictions to protect the landlord's right to "respect for his home and family life", which is enshrined in human rights legislation.
The judge said restrictions included a ban on publication of the landlord's name and address.
Another judge imposed an injunction restricting reporting late on 15 February.
Tugendhat said on Thursday he had made a new order following a high court hearing in London on 20 February.
He said media organisations had been notified.
Leonie Hirst, for the landlord, told Tugendhat at the hearing earlier this week that her client became "through no fault … the subject of intense and very intrusive media scrutiny".
"My client's concern is primarily to be left alone," Hirst told the judge. "He wants journalists to stop pursuing him and his family at his home."
Qatada was released from prison on conditional bail after judges in Strasbourg ruled he could not be deported without assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.
He claimed asylum after arriving in Britain in 1993 and was convicted in his absence in Jordan of being involved in two terrorist conspiracies in 1999.
He was detained in 2002, when an immigration court described him as a "truly dangerous individual", and has issued a series of fatwas, or religious rulings, in support of the killing of non-believers.
A number of his videos were also found in the Hamburg flat of Mohammed Atta, one of the ringleaders of the 9/11 hijackers.