October 10, 2012 -- Updated 0814 GMT (1614 HKT)
Abu Qatada has been described as "more radical than Osama bin Laden."
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Abu Qatada was convicted in absentia of terror-related charges in Jordan
- British official: Jordan will quash that conviction and retry him
- Abu Qatada is also accused of funding terrorist groups and inspiring a 9/11 hijaker
- He has said deportation would put him at risk of torture and lengthy pre-trial detention
Britain has been trying
to deport Abu Qatada for years, but his legal appeals have kept him in
the United Kingdom. He is accused of funding terrorist groups and is
said to have inspired one of the 9/11 hijackers.
In January, the European Court blocked Britain
from sending him to Jordan because of fears that evidence obtained by
torture could be used against him in the trial the Middle Eastern
country plans.
Britain then launched a
round of negotiations with Jordan in order to deal with the European
court's concerns and arrested Abu Qatada again on April 17.
Abu Qatad's deportation appeal
Abu Hamza to be extradited to the U.S.
Extradition for Abu Hamza?
The following month, the European Court rejected an appeal by his lawyers to avoid deportation.
The decision set the stage for Wednesday's hearing in front of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission.
Who is Abu Qatada?
Also known as Omar
Othman, Abu Qatada is a militant Palestinian preacher who had been held
in high-security U.K. jails for more than six years.
Videos of his preaching
were found in a German apartment used by some of those involved in the
9/11 attacks on the United States, including ringleader Mohammad Atta.
Counter-terrorism
sources said Abu Qatada was a big influence on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
Jordanian who would emerge as al Qaeda's leader in Iraq.
What is he accused of?
The British government
claims Abu Qatada raised money for terrorist groups, including
organizations linked to former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, and has
publicly supported the violent activities of those groups.
Abu Qatada has denied the allegations against him.
Why is he wanted in Jordan?
In 2000, Jordan
convicted him in absentia for a plot to bomb tourists in the country to
celebrate the new millennium. He was also convicted for his role in two
terrorist attacks in the country in 1998.
Jordan has said it will will quash that conviction and retry him.
Why is he fighting deportation?
Abu Qatada has said deportation would put him at risk of torture and lengthy pre-trial detention.
When did he arrive in the United Kingdom?
Using a forged United
Arab Emirates passport, Abu Qatada arrived in the United Kingdom in 1993
and sought asylum for himself, his wife and their three children,
according to court documents. He claimed he had been tortured by
Jordanian authorities.
The British government recognized him as a refugee and allowed him to stay in the country until 1998.
Abu Qatada applied to
stay indefinitely, but while his application was pending, a Jordanian
court convicted him in absentia on the terrorism charges.
What does he preach?
As a preacher in London mosques, Abu Qatada gained a militant following.
In 1999, he allegedly sought to justify the killing of Jews, including children, and attacking Americans.
In 2001, three days
after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, Abu Qatada preached that
the attacks were part of a global struggle between Christianity and
Islam, and were a response to America's unjust policies.
In another sermon, he sought to justify the killing by a Muslim of a "non-believer" for the sake of Islam.
Writing in The New
Yorker in 2006, Lawrence Wright quotes a Saudi journalist who had met
Abu Qatada in the early 1990s. Jamal Khashoggi said "Abu Qatada had
struck him as far more radical than Osama bin Laden... influenced by
Salafism, the puritanical, fundamentalist strain of Islam."
Has he been convicted of a crime in Britain?
He was first detained in
the United Kingdom in 2002 under sweeping anti-terror legislation
enacted after 9/11 -- along with dozens of other Islamist militants. He
was released briefly in 2005 after the repeal of the law. Later that
year, British authorities ordered his renewed detention under the
Prevention of Terrorism Act.
No evidence has been
produced in a British court to suggest he was involved with specific al
Qaeda conspiracies. As one popular tweet puts it: "Abu Qatada has not
even been convicted of a parking offense in Britain."
Why not?
Two reasons. Authorities
are unwilling to produce evidence in open court that might prove some
operational or direct link to terrorism for fear of compromising
intelligence sources.
Second, it is notoriously difficult to prove a crime has been committed by the use of words that influence others' actions.
Who is the other cleric recently extradited from Britain?
Radical Muslim cleric
Abu Hamza al-Masri, just extradited from Britain to the United States,
pleaded not guilty Tuesday on 11 counts of terrorism. His hearing in a
U.S. court came after al-Masri lost a lengthy legal battle to avoid
extradition to the United States from London.
Al-Masri has called the
9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center "a towering day in history" and
described bin Laden as "a good guy and a hero."
The charges against
al-Masri include conspiracy in connection with a 1998 kidnapping of 16
Westerners in Yemen, and conspiring with others to establish an Islamic
jihad training camp in rural Oregon in 1999. If convicted, al-Masri
could be sentenced to life in prison.
CNN's Tim Lister, Richard Roth and Olivia Smith contributed to this report
No comments:
Post a Comment