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Qatada under 24-hour guard
Rashid Razaq, Evening Standard18.06.08
Freed Islamist hate preacher Abu Qatada was today starting his new life outside prison - in an MI5 safe house under 24-hour guard.
The cleric once described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe" was released on bail last night after a judge ruled there were no longer any grounds to detain him.
The 47-year-old is free to return to his house in Acton after he won his High Court battle against deportation to Jordan - where he is wanted on terror charges - after it was decided he would not receive a fair trial.
However, the danger to his safety from vigilante attacks means Qatada will have to be protected by security agents and kept under constant surveillance at an estimated cost of £500,000 a year.
Qatada also faces some of the toughest bail conditions imposed by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, including a 22-hour curfew and wearing an electronic tag.
The same body's judges have referred to the cleric, who arrived in Britain 14 years ago on a forged passport, as a "truly dangerous individual". An eightpage bail order specifies that Qatada will be barred from associating with certain people, including hate preacher Abu Hamza.
The list of Qatada's banned associates also includes bin Laden's deputy Ayman al- Zawahiri and Rachid Ramda, who has been convicted in France of masterminding a series of bombings in 1995.
Unusually, the document bans Qatada from attending "any mosque". Similar restrictions on other Muslim terror suspects normally make provision for them to attend faith meetings, such as Friday prayers.
Qatada, whose wife and five children live on state benefits, is also prevented from leading prayers, giving lectures or "providing religious instruction" to anyone except his immediate family.
Under the terms of his release, Qatada will also be banned from:
• Publishing any document or making any statement without the Home Secretary's approval.
• Using mobile phones, computers and other communications equipment.
• Having more than one bank account.
• Receiving any visitor to his home, apart from family members, lawyers, emergency services personnel and children under 10, without the Home Secretary's permission.
The Government has not given up hope of deporting Qatada and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is due to appeal the ruling. Ms Smith said: "I am appealing to the House of Lords to reverse the decision that it is not safe to deport Qatada and the other Jordaniancases." The preacher has been accused of helping to inspire the September 11 attacks after videos of his sermons were found in the flat used by three of the hijackers, including their leader Mohammed Atta.
Qatada was convicted, in his absence, of plotting a series of bomb attack in Amman in 1998 and for his involvement with terrorists planning a series of explosions in the Jordanian capital on millennium night.
Reader views (3)
Wow! I feel like crying for this great country. When will this stop? This government with its judicial system have simply turn everything upside down. Have they in anyway been affected by the madness of this terror group? While these people milk the system dry, they have the audacity to plan evil against the same system that welcomed them into this society, gave them free house, pay them children support, etc. I ask again and again, when will these nonsense stop?
- Ngozi Anukem, London
Could this Govt be any more weak and useless?
- Squiz, Islington
This is madness. A country that is under threat from a preacher like Qatada, pays for his security? The law is a fool and the Government is weak.
- Sdm, Surrey
