Law Lords Say Abu Qatada Can Be Deported

Last April, Qatada defeated an attempt to deport him after Appeal Court judges ruled he would not face a fair trial in Jordan.

A Jordanian cleric described by the government as a "significant international terrorist" can be deported despite fears he may be tortured, the country's highest court decided on Wednesday.

Abu Qatada, linked by Britain to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, is one of a group of Arab men the government has been trying to deport on national security grounds, while acknowledging it does not have enough evidence to put them on trial.

The Law Lords ruling was a victory for the Home Office in its long-running campaign to deport Qatada to Jordan, where he is wanted on terror charges, and overturns a previous Court of Appeal decision.

"I'm delighted with the Lords' decision," Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in a statement.

The Law Lords also ruled in favour of the government over its attempt to deport two other men to Algeria.

Smith said the decision "highlights the threat these individuals pose to our nation's security and vindicates our efforts to remove them."

The minister said a deportation order had been signed and would be served on Qatada on Wednesday.

Human rights groups criticised the move.

"The Law Lords have given the government a green light to send people back to places where they risk torture and ill-treatment," said Julia Hall, of Human Rights Watch.

The government has sought to counter rights groups' fears of torture by securing special agreements with the countries concerned that deportees will not be ill-treated.

All three men can take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Qatada was once described by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon as bin Laden's top operative in Europe, but he has denied belonging to al Qaeda.

The government says 18 videotapes of his sermons were found in an apartment in Germany used by three of the people who carried out al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.

The cleric was arrested by British authorities in 2002 under now defunct laws which allowed foreigners suspected of involvement in terrorism to be held without charge.

He was later freed on bail but was detained again in 2005.

Last April, Qatada defeated an attempt to deport him after Appeal Court judges ruled he would not face a fair trial in Jordan.

In June, he was freed from prison on bail, but was returned to custody in December after being deemed to have breached strict conditions, where he has remained. Authorities suspected he was planning to flee the country.

They said he has declared a wish to lawfully leave Britain for any state other than Jordan that would take him, and that he was seeking to live in the Palestinian territories where he was born.