Abu Qatada Sent Back to UK Jail
LONDON: Terror suspect Abu Qatada was on Saturday sent back to jail by a British judge, just two days before the government was due to make a fresh bid to deport him to Jordan.
The radical cleric was found to have breached the conditions of his bail granted last November.
"The appellant's bail is revoked forthwith, and he is ordered to be detained," judge Stephen Irwin said in an order, adding that Abu Qatada would be detained at the high-security Belmarsh prison.
Abu Qatada had been rearrested by officials from the UK Border Agency on Friday, and his case assessed in an urgent telephone hearing on Saturday before a judge of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
The judge said Abu Qatada had breached a bail condition that banned him from having mobile phones switched on in his house while he was there, or from having digital media devices, re-writable CDs or pen drives brought into his house.
Another bail hearing will be held on March 21, the judge said.
Successive British governments have been trying for a decade to deport Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mohammed Othman, to Jordan where he was sentenced in absentia for involvement in terror attacks. (AFP)
World News
AFP
