Abu Qatada release: We must stand up to European Court of Human Rights judges

By
James Slack

Last updated at 11:35 PM on 7th February 2012

The decision by an immigration judge to grant bail to Abu Qatada, one of the world’s most dangerous fanatics, is a truly perverse and disturbing state of affairs.

But although Mr Justice Mitting caused outrage by giving Osama Bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe bail terms which allow him to walk his youngest child to school, he is not the person to blame for this terrifying shambles.

He is merely a puppet whose strings have been tugged remotely by the unelected, unaccountable judges at the European Court of Human Rights.

The law (following a 2004 human rights ruling) states that it is possible to hold a foreign terror suspect only where there is a realistic prospect of extradition or deportation.

A puppet: Mr Justice Mitting is chained by the law of the European Court of Human Rights

A puppet: Mr Justice Mitting is chained by the law of the European Court of Human Rights

However, in the case of Qatada (an Al Qaeda-linked zealot accused of inspiring terrorist atrocities worldwide), human rights judges in Strasbourg wrecked this prospect by ruling last month that Qatada could not be sent to Jordan to face grave terror charges. As a result, it became inevitable that, even though the decision endangers the public, he must be given his freedom.

It’s hard to imagine any other country in the world which would release a convicted terrorist who, in the words of Home Office QC Tim Eicke ‘poses an unusually significant risk to the UK’, and who even Mr Justice Mitting concedes ‘has shown no inclination of any change in attitude’.

How countries such as France and Italy, which deport terror suspects without worrying about the European court, must laugh as they watch Britain tie itself in knots trying to appease Strasbourg.

Indeed, there could be worse to come from the Euro judges. Within weeks, they will pass judgment on whether hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza, and five other dangerous fanatics locked up in British jails can be extradited to the U.S.

Whitehall officials, reeling from the Qatada judgment, fear defeat.

When that time comes, Hamza, who has now completed his British jail sentence for preaching hate and inciting murder at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, will be eligible for release.

So will the other five men, who between them are accused of terrorist training, conspiracy to commit terrorist atrocities overseas and supporting terrorist groups.

Thus, in the immediate run-up to the Olympics, we risk having some of the world’s worst fomenters of hatred newly released from prison and living among us.

Yes, they will be under the strictest supervision (Qatada will have a 22-hour curfew and be banned from using the internet or a mobile). But the danger the likes of Qatada and his fellow extremist preachers pose is enormous.

They do not take part in the planning of attacks. Rather, they provide the religious legitimacy for acts of violence. This can be done by, for example, smuggling a video tape out of prison via an associate. Hamza was found delivering sermons down the pipes of his cell inside a high-security jail.

And there are plenty of crazed fanatics waiting to answer their call.

Yesterday, the respected think-tank the Royal United Services Institute warned there are at least 200 would-be suicide bombers actively planning attacks in Britain.

Whitehall officials also emphasise the risk posed by so-called ‘lone wolves’ – individuals who are not part of a large network, and therefore harder for the Security Services to keep track of.

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has overruled every court in Britain in ruling that Abu Qatada can stay in Britain

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has overruled every court in Britain in ruling that Abu Qatada can stay in Britain

A chilling example is the case of Roshonara Choudhry, a student who was radicalised by listening to extremist preacher Anwar al-Awlaki’s sermons on the internet. She then went to the constituency surgery of the former Labour minister Stephen Timms and tried to assassinate him by stabbing him twice in the stomach.

How many more ‘lone wolves’ are out there, waiting to be inspired by Qatada – who Britain’s Special Immigration and Appeals Commission considers to have already given religious authority to numerous high-profile terrorists across the world.

Among those he 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.

Lone wolf: Roshonara Choudhry was inspired by radical al Qaida cleric

Lone wolf: Roshonara Choudhry was inspired by radical al Qaida cleric

Court papers say he also advised Rachid Ramda, jailed in France for financing the bombing of the Paris Metro in 1995, and Djamel Beghal, an Algerian linked to Finsbury Park mosque, jailed in France for plotting to blow up the American embassy in Paris.

To date, Qatada has been careful not to do anything which would lead to his conviction in a British criminal court by, for example, directly advocating attacks against Britain.

The evidence which is held against him – such as how he was plotting to slip the authorities and leave Britain in 2008, when last released on bail – was obtained secretly and cannot be disclosed in open court.

However, it should be noted that Qatada’s hardline views – which we know have not softened – may, in fact, have been hardened by his years spent inside the UK’s jail system. Disturbingly, no one knows how he will react to freedom.

So what do we do with Qatada and those like him who cannot be placed on trial here, but are too dangerous to live freely among us?

In the Commons, Home Secretary Theresa May said: ‘The right place for a terrorist is a prison cell and the right place for a foreign terrorist is a foreign prison cell, far away from Britain.’

But, as MPs repeatedly pointed out, this can be achieved only by overcoming the objections of the European court, which has continually shown itself unwilling to accept the verdicts of our courts or wishes of our elected Parliamentarians.

(The Law Lords, since replaced by the Supreme Court, ruled it was safe to deport Qatada to Jordan, where he is wanted for plotting a Millennium bomb attack. However, this counted for nothing in Strasbourg’s eyes).

The case for taking on Strasbourg grows ever more irrefutable.

The face of evil: Abu Qatada will now be walking freely on our streets, even dropping his child at school each morning

The face of evil: Abu Qatada will now be walking freely on our streets, even dropping his child at school each morning

The 1951 Convention on Human Rights which the court is supposedly upholding was born out of the horrors of the Second World War.

When Britain signed up to agreeing to protect the citizens of the world from ‘torture or degrading treatment’, it had in mind the sickening rituals of the Nazi concentration camps.

But Strasbourg has extended the scope of the Convention beyond all reasonable limits. For example, the reason Qatada cannot be deported is not that he himself faces torture. Europe accepts he does not.

Rather, he is being protected from potentially being placed on trial using some evidence which may itself have been obtained by ill-treating another individual.

MPs know this is madness. So, when he is not worrying about upsetting Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg, does Prime Minister David Cameron. Yet so far his promises to reform the European court have been limited to rhetoric.

The decision to let Qatada out on bail is a dangerous affront to justice and common sense.

If it doesn’t persuade the Prime Minister to ask Mr Clegg to step aside, and give the court a serious ultimatum to stop blocking the deportation of terror suspects or face Britain withdrawing from its jurisdiction altogether, nothing ever will.

Here’s what other readers have said. Why not add your thoughts,
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The comments below have been moderated in advance.

They are elected – don`t your journos do basic research?

I don’t know what all the fuss is about, just deport him anyway, what is the ECHC going to do, fine us, don’t pay, declare war, I think not. The problem is the U.K Government, It does not Govern this country any more, it hasn’t the guts.

Time to vote FARAGE

It is past time that we ceased to recognise the ECHR and its perverse rulings by a bunch of poorly trained so called judges.
We should ship terrorists out to whomsoever wants them without any regard whatsoever for so called human rights. if they come to the UK they should expect to be deported along with their families.

It is simple. Just repeal the human rights act, thus removing ourselves from the outside jurisdiction of the ECHR. It would be nice if they repealed the 1972 act which ties us in to Europe at the same time, plus all the other amending legislation (Lisbon etc.)!

Referendum, referendum, referendum. When is the Daily Mail going to get it? Cameron is a waffler and will do nothing, let the people decide IN or OUT.
– Jonathan, Bangor, UK, 08/2/2012 07:30—-A few months ago in a DM editorial, it stipulated that the DM does not want the UK to leave the EU.
As for Cameron, he knows he can do nothing at all to change the ECHR or anything else in the EU. He is willing to be a poodle as he is as much a europhile as Clegg. He may huff and puff about ECHR, but like B’liar before him, he knows he cannot do anything about it until we are out of the thing altogether. It ain’t going to happen anytime soon unless there are mass demonstrations on the street.

Yes of course we should regain control over our courts and our nation. Let’s start by nailing the BIG LIE that there is no connection between the ECHR and the EU. Of course there is – they are both parts of the unspoken but consistent policy of the past fifty years of weakening our nation until we all bow the knee to the lordship of Von Rumpoy and the rest of that corrupt, unelected cabal in Brussels.
Let’s begin with a REFERENDUM on our membership of the EU – you know, the one that they all promised us.

I’m afraid now it will take one or maybe even two really terrible terrorist atrocities to wake this country up. That’s how appallingly inactive we have become. We do not have a political class worthy of the name any more and until something breaks the dam we will do what we usually do and just sit around moaning a bit.

Referendum, referendum, referendum.
When is the Daily Mail going to get it?
Cameron is a waffler and will do nothing, let the people decide IN or OUT.

A European Arrest Warrant was used to deport Andrew Symeou to Greece on an obviously trumped up charge of murder. He had no right of appeal and our courts were powerless to stop it. He spent two years in a Greek jail before all charges were dropped against him. But when it comes to deporting an extremist fanatic linked to Al Qaeda all the Government can do is sentence him to the school run. Funny old world isn’t it? Well not so funny really.

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