Coming Soon to a Street Near You

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Radical cleric Abu Qatada is released

Radical cleric Abu Qatada, described as "Osama bin Laden's right hand man in Europe," is apparently to be released in the next 24 hours and will be under 22-hour curfew in Acton.

Qatada has been accused of giving advice and support to terrorists including the leader of the September 11 hijackers. He has been described in official documents as a "truly dangerous individual" who was "heavily involved, indeed at the centre of terrorist activities associated with al-Qa'eda."

Convicted twice in Jordan in his absence for conspiracy to carry out bomb attacks on two hotels in Amman in 1998, Qatada has also provided finance and advice for a series of Millennium bomb attacks in Jordan. The convictions meant he could argue that, were he to be sent home, he would not be treated fairly. His release comes as a result of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.

The bail order was signed today and his release from Long Larton Jail is expected tomorrow. Qatada will be electronically tagged and put under a 22-hour curfew at his family home in Acton. Conditions include not being allowed a mobile phone or internet access, and a banned list of Islamic radicals including Osama bin Laden.

Some of the bail money was put up by Norman Kember, after Qatada made an appeal for his release from captivity in Baghdad in November 2005. He was eventually released by the SAS.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said she will appeal the decision to refuse his deportation. The Home Office say Qatada provided religious and spiritual advice to extremist groups almost from the moment he arrived in Britain from Jordan in 1993. He is said to have offered guidance in response to requests for authority to carry out attacks and terrorist cells have been motivated by his speeches and writings.

According to a Home Office dossier, between 1995 and 1999 Qatada used his base at the Four Feathers Social Club in Baker Street, central London to issue a series of influential fatwas [religious rulings] which supported the killing of non-believers. Among those he is said to have influenced were Mohammed Atta, one of the ring-leaders of the September 11 hijackers, who had a number of Qatada's videos in his Hamburg flat.

It is also said that he advised Rachid Ramda, jailed in France for financing the bombing of the Paris Metro in 1995 and Djamel Beghal, jailed in France for plotting to blow up the American embassy in Paris. The Spanish claim he is an associate of Abu Dahdah, who ran a network of safe-houses for terrorists in Spain, and sent him money. He is also said to be a close associate of the Algerian Abu Doha, who was arrested in Britain in 2001 in connection with a planned attack on Los Angeles airport.

The groups who asked for his guidance are thought to include al-Qa'eda, Islamic Jihad in Egypt, the GIA and GSPC in Algeria and other groups in Iraq, Indonesia, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. It is said he was the "spiritual leader" of the al-Tawhid movement, which was led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who went on to be al-Qa'eda's leader in Iraq.

MI5 believe that Qatada avoided being drawn into the al-Qa'eda structure in order to maintain his independence and continue his activities in Britain but he did have links to the Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri, whom he met in Afghanistan and who is now Bin Laden's number two. The Special Immigration and Appeals Commission (SIAC) has described him as a "truly dangerous individual" who was "heavily involved, indeed at the centre of terrorist activities associated with al-Qa'eda."

June 17, 2008