LONDON: Britain deported radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada to Jordan on Sunday, ending eight years of government efforts to send him home for trial on charges of alleged terrorism. Qatada was deported on the anniversary of the July 7, 2005 suicide attacks on London’s subway and bus network that killed more than 50 people.
A police convoy collected Abu Qatada from London’s Belmarsh prison after midnight and drove him through the streets of the capital to a military airport. Soon after arriving in Jordan, he was taken under heavy guard to a nearby military court.
Home Secretary Theresa said “This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country May, whose efforts to get Qatada out of the country had been frustrated by a series of legal rulings.
“I am glad that this government’s determination to see him on a plane has been vindicated and that we have at last achieved what previous governments, Parliament and the British public have long called for,” she added in a statement.
The legal battle to deport Qatada has embarrassed successive British governments. Prime Minister David Cameron said he was “absolutely delighted” it was over
“It’s an issue that … has made my blood boil – that this man who has no right to be in our country, who’s a threat to our country, that it took so long and was so difficult to deport
him,” Cameron told reporters.
