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The Special Immigration Appeals Commission ruled that Qatada should be bailed on highly prescriptive terms for three months while the British government sought further reassurances from Jordan.
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Sounds like the situation is moving forward through the system.
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The European Court of Human Rights blocked Britain from deporting the 51-year-old Islamist cleric to Jordan after ruling that he might not receive a fair trial.
David Cameron is under mounting pressure to find a way of deporting Qatada, even if it means defying the European court.
Jordan said on Monday it would “very soon” approach the court with new guarantees that Qatada would be treated fairly if he was deported. “[The law] mentions very expressly that any evidence obtained from torture or a threat of torture should not be admissible before the courts in Jordan,” said Ayman Odeh, the justice minister.
“We are confident that once we have the chance to make this statement through the diplomatic channels … [it] will be taken into consideration.”
Jordan passed an amendment banning evidence obtained from torture last September.
Home Office sources said Jordan’s new efforts should not be considered a “quick fix”, meaning Qatada could remain free in Britain for months.
The taxpayer will have to fund up to 60 police officers at a cost of about £10,000 a week to protect the extremist preacher from vigilante attacks.
Peter Bone, a senior Conservative backbencher, called for the Government to deport Qatada and “worry about the consequences of the European Court later”.
“Other countries have done this in the past: Italy did it, they put their national interests first,” he said. “They put the interests of saving the lives of men, women and children in Italy before the so-called rights of an extremist terrorist and nothing really happened to Italy. We should act in that way. Send him home.”
On Monday, a Downing Street spokesman did not rule out the possibility of a deportation in defiance of the European Court. “We are committed to removing him from the country,” he said. “We want to see him deported. We are looking at all the options for doing that.”
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