Abu Qatada denied bail to allow MI5 to focus on Olympics

[Pappa]

I found this kind of funny....

Abu Qatada, the Islamist cleric, was denied bail today because of the impossible strain it would place on the police and MI5 if he absconded during the Olympics.

The extremist preacher, once described as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", sought again to be freed from jail while he fights deportation to his native Jordan.

But a senior immigration judge ruled that he should remain in the high-security Belmarsh Prison in London, expressing concerns that Qatada's supporters in al Qaeda could help him to escape if he were bailed.

Mr Justice Mitting said if the 51-year-old firebrand cleric absconded, the security services would either have to divert resources away from protecting the Olympics and Paralympics to find him or make locating him a lower priority.

"I am not going to take that risk, and it would be wrong for me to do so," he said.

The judge observed that al Qaeda groups in North and East Africa have posted statements of support for Qatada on jihadist websites.

He said: "Others who claim to champion his cause, but who are themselves sinister players in global affairs, have expressed themselves vehemently in such a manner to give rise to the concern that I have that they may lend him effective support to abscond."

Lawyers for Theresa May, the Home Secretary, accused Qatada's legal team of trying to "string out" the proceedings to put off the "inevitable" day when the fundamentalist cleric will be sent back to Jordan.

Qatada's barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) in London it was "almost inevitable" that the case will again go to the European Court of Human Rights inStrasbourg whatever the outcome of an appeal hearing in Britain in October.

He said: "There will obviously be rights of appeal to both parties, and this is a matter that is almost inevitable to go all the way back to Europe.”

But Mr Justice Mitting said there was a “real possibility” that Siac’s judgment on Qatada’s appeal against deportation, expected by the end of the year, will be the conclusion of the case.

He said: “Provided that Siac does its job properly, the outcome of this litigation will be determined within at most just over six months, subject only to what I regard as the unlikely prospect of a further challenge by either the Secretary of State or the appellant.”

Qatada, who did not attend today's hearing, was freed on bail in February after the European Court of Human Rights ruled he could be sent back to Jordan to face a retrial over a terror plot in case evidence obtained through torture is used against him.

He was re-arrested and detained again last month after Mrs May obtained assurances from Jordan he would get a fair trial.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Qatada is a dangerous man and we are pleased the court agreed with us that he should remain behind bars before he is deported.

"We intend to remove Qatada as quickly as possible. The assurances we have secured from the Jordanian Government will allow us to do that.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... mpics.html

[Clinton Huxley]

They should let him be in the opening ceremony

[redunderthebed]

Meh that is the tip of the iceberg i wonder how many buses did they send out to essex to get rid of all the homeless people in the london CBD. In the 2000 sydney olympics the police gave homeless people a choice either go out to western sydney with blankets and food vouchers or be arrested and put in lockup.......bus loads of homeless people where dumped in western sydney and told to stay there until the important people left.

I like the olympics as a sporting event but despise the fact it has being hijacked by the rich and morally bankrupt.