LONDON, March 27 (UPI) -- Radical Islamic cleric Abu Qatada will remain in Britain as the High Court ruled Wednesday evidence obtained by torture could be used against him in Jordan.
The 10-year effort by Home Secretary Theresa May to extradite Qatada reached another impasse as the court, acknowledging Qatada "a danger to national security" and a "general feeling his deportation to Jordan to face trial is long overdue," ruled these matters irrelevant of the decision in November to refuse the Home Office permission to deport him, the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph reported Wednesday.
The three-person court ruled Britain's Special Immigration Appeals Commission was correct to conclude there was "compelling evidence" statements by two of Qatada's co-defendants in Jordan were obtained by torture, and a "real risk" existed that those statements would be used against Qatada in retrial.
Qatada was first arrested in Britain in 2002 and has used a number of court procedures to evade his removal from Britain, the newspaper said.
