PM urged to deport Qatada as he hides in north London safe house

Hours after the radical preacher was freed, senior Conservatives said the Prime Minister should ignore the European Court of Human Rights and put Qatada on a plane home.

But government sources insisted a deal could still be struck with the Jordanian authorities which would allow Qatada to be returned in full compliance with the law.

As Home Office minister James Brokenshire conducted negotiations in Jordan over Qatada's fate, former Home Office minister David Mellor called on ministers to simply ignore the European ruling.

"The ruling in Strasbourg is a gnat-bite that the British Government is totally free to ignore," he said.

"There is clearance up to the level of the Supreme Court here to deport him to Jordan, which is a friendly state with a civilised government.
"If the Home Secretary chose to put him on a plane this morning, she would have broken no laws."

Tory backbencher Dominic Raab added: "As a matter of public protection Britain should deport Qatada without delay."

Qatada was freed yesterday from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire after spending the past six and a half years in prison pending deportation to face terrorism charges in Jordan.

He has been placed under a 22-hour curfew and given bail conditions which bar him from using telephones or the internet, attending a mosque or leaving a strictly defined area. The 51-year-old has also been banned from contacting 27 others including al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri and jailed preacher Abu Hamza.

Last night Ayman Odeh, the Jordanian legislative affairs minister, said that his country had passed an amendment to ban the use of evidence obtained through torture.

He added that Britain would be given "assurances" about this legal change that it could present to the European Court of Human Rights which, if satisfied by the Jordanian pledge, could overturn its current bar on Qatada's deportation when ministers submit their appeal.

That would overcome the crucial obstacle blocking Qatada's deportation. It was ruled unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights last month because of the risk that such evidence would form part of a prosecution case against him.

Qatada's wife and five children moved out of the £1 million Acton home they were living in a month ago after the owner sold the property.

The new owners said they had no idea who the previous occupant was when they purchased the four-bedroom semi-detached house.

Mayor Boris Johnson, who has attacked the "lunacy" of Qatada's release in London, has revealed that 60 Met officers a day will be required to monitor the preacher to protect the public and ensure that he can be returned to prison the instant he breaches any of his bail conditions. The bill to the taxpayer could be as much as £10,000 a day.

Qatada was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and has featured in hate sermons found on videos in the flat of one of the September 11 bombers.