Fears Qatada is beating bail terms to spread terror

The radical cleric - who has been described as Osama bin Laden's "ambassador in Europe" - was photographed walking the streets with a friend who was seen listening to Qatada and then talking moments later into a mobile phone.

The picture raised fears that Qatada, 48, who was freed from custody this year because it would breach his human rights to deport him, was using his associate to circumvent the tight bail restrictions under which his release was approved.

Those concerns heightened today with claims that the friend seen apparently assisting Qatada is convicted terrorist Yasser al-Sirri, a former member of Egypt's Islamic Jihad group, who has been sentenced to death in his home country over a 1993 car bomb attack.

Critics said the pair's meeting - and the apparent relaying of messages by Qatada to al-Sirri - highlighted serious flaws in the controls placed upon the cleric. These include a ban on associating with about 20 named Islamic extremists, a similar bar on using mobile phones and a 22-hour curfew.

Al-Sirri, 46, is not included on the list of banned associates and nor, as the recent photographic evidence indicates, do the rules appear to prevent Qatada passing on instructions that others could then relay via a mobile.

Today, the Centre of Social Cohesion think tank, which claims to have identified al-Sirri as the person seen meeting Qatada, said it was deeply concerned about the apparent close contact between the two men.

"That Abu Qatada is allowed to freely meet with such an individual indicates serious flaws in Qatada's bail conditions," it said.

"Although al-Sirri has never been convicted in a UK court there is ample evidence to suggest that he has been involved in radical Islamic movements since at least the early Nineties.

"During this time he has been closely associated with leading extremists both in the UK and abroad."

Born in Suez in 1962, Al-Sirri became involved in radical Islamic politics in the Eighties, joining the extremist Egyptian Islamic Jihad group whose former leaders also include Ayman al-Zawahir, Osama bin Laden's second in command in al Qaeda.

In 1993, Islamic Jihad attempted to assassinate the then Egyptian prime minister using a car bomb outside a girls' school. The attack failed but a 12-year-old girl was killed in the blast.

Qatada was released on bail in June after judges said deporting him to Jordan would breach his human rights because of the risk that evidence gained through torture would be used against him.