Mobile UPI  |   About UPI  |   UPI en Español  |   UPI Arabic  |   UPIU  |   My Account
Search:
Go

Bin Laden's 'spiritual ambassador' freed

|
|
 
  
Published: May 9, 2008 at 12:56 PM

LONDON, May 9 (UPI) -- A radical Muslim cleric believed to be the "spiritual ambassador in Europe" for Osama bin Laden is to be freed on bail, a British judge ruled.

Abu Qatada, 48, who succeeded in his legal battle against being deported to Jordan in April, is set to be released from jail with bail requirements including a 22-hour house arrest, The Times of London reported.

Qatada asked the Special Immigration Appeals Commission for bail, claiming it was unlawful to hold him indefinitely without the possibility of deportation.

The judge's decision to free the cleric is the most recent in a string of legal rulings that go against the government's position on terrorist activities, the Times said.

The judge said he agreed that Qatada posed a security risk, but added that it would be overstepping the law to further jail him in the absence of a conviction or trial.

Topics: Abu Qatada, bin Laden, Osama bin Laden
© 2008 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

Order reprints
  
Join the conversation
Most Popular Collections
Notable deaths of 2012 Scripps National Spelling Bee AmfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala
Indianapolis 500 Presidential Medal of Freedom Memorial Day around the nation
Additional Top News Stories
1 of 20
Singer Janelle Monae arrives at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards in Universal City, California
View Caption
Singer Janelle Monae arrives for the MTV Movie Awards at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California. UPI/Jim Ruymen
fark
"Good News" clubs teach children in public schools the Biblical importance of killing all nonbelievers...
Five arrested in prostitution sting. Article lists their names, ages and distance from a church
Photoshop this power tower technician
Driving drunk and unlicensed, with a kid not even buckled let alone in a safety seat, en route to...
Man killed in Spencer fire. The lava lamps must have ignited the blacklight posters
Passenger jet crashes into apartment building in Nigerian capitol. Over 150 princes, bank officials,...