Theresa May today launched a new court bid to win the removal of Abu Qatada from Britain.
The extremist cleric was freed on bail last month after a judge ruled that evidence obtained by torture might be used against him if he was sent back to Jordan to stand trial on terrorism charges.
The controversial ruling also led to Qatada’s release on bail despite warnings from the Home Secretary that he continues to pose a serious danger to national security.
So today in an attempt to overturn the judgement, lawyers for Mrs May applied to the Court of Appeal for permission to challenge the ruling. A decision on whether to allow the appeal is expected to be taken before Christmas. If it is given the go-ahead, the Home Secretary hopes that Court of Appeal judges will overturn the earlier decision and allow her to resume efforts to extradite Qatada.
The extremist cleric is wanted in Jordan, his home country, on terrorism charges. He went to the European Court of Human Rights with claim that he was at risk of torture himself if sent back. That claim was rejected.
But the Strasbourg court ruled that his extradition could still be in breach of human rights law because of the danger that evidence of witnesses testiying against him might be obtained by torture.
The Home Secretary has since sought to reach new agreements with Jordan to overcome this problem, but saw her efforts to remove Qatada from the country blocked again last month a judge at the Special Immigratioin Appeals Commission ruled that the safeguards she had obtained were inadequate.
That means Qatada cannot currently be extradited.
