Hate preacher Abu Qatada will receive round-the-clock police protection costing £10,000 a week after he is released from prison tomorrow.
Officers will guard Qatada's West London home where a panic alarm has been installed over fears he and his family may be attacked by vigilante mobs.
The Police have a 'duty of care' to protect him , his wife and five children and have drawn up plans to move them to a safe-house in the event of an emergency.
On the loose: Qatada will be under curfew for 22-hours-a-day but will be free to take his children to and from school
He will be under a 22-hour-a-day curfew, with two hours provided to take his children to and from school, following his release from Long Lartin jail, Worcs.
Security Minister James Brokenshire is scheduled to fly to Jordan this week in the hope Qatada can be deported there to face charges of terrorism.
Police have a 'duty of care' to protect Qatada and his family
Prime Minister David Cameron is also due to speak to King Abdullah of Jordan about the matter.
Earlier efforts to deport Qatada to Jordan where he is wanted over his alleged involvement in bomb plots, failed after the European Court of Human rights judged the evidence against him to have been obtained by torture.
If next week's negotiations fail Qatada will continue to be monitored under the new Terrorism Prevention Measures for two years, but after that point he will be totally free.
One of the terms of his release is that he will only be able to meet visitors who have been vetted.
However the restrictions do not apply to his children, one of which - 18-year-old Qatada Othman - appears to be following in his father's footsteps after it emerged he delivered an anti-British sermon outside Belmarsh prison in August last year.
Qatada Othman accused the government of 'waging war' against Muslims as he shared a platform with convicted terrorists.
The youngster, who arrived in the UK with his father as a two-month-old baby, was speaking at the event organised by former members of the now-banned group Al-Muhajiroun.
During his sermon he praised the 'places of jihad' that have stood up to western 'colonisation' and praised terror suspects Abu Hamza and Haroon Aswat.
Release: Qatada is due to walk free from Long Lartin jail, Worcs., on Monday
Qatada senior was originally convicted (in his absence) of a series of crimes in Jordan whilst living in the UK on state benefits said to total £1,000 a month – including £70 a week for a bad back.
These included terror attacks in 1998, and plotting to plant bombs in what would have been a terrorist ‘spectacular’ to mark the Millennium.
He called on British Muslims to martyr themselves in a holy war, and was arrested by anti-terrorism police in February 2001 in connection with plans by a cell in Frankfurt to bomb the Strasbourg Christmas market.
Battle: The Daily Mail's front page from January 27, 2005
He was found to have £170,000 cash in his possession, including £805 in an envelope marked ‘For the mujahedin in Chechnya’.
No charges were brought because of insufficient evidence, and he was allowed to remain at large. In the panic after the 9/11 attacks, the authorities finally decided Qatada and other extremists should be removed from the streets.
Controversial laws were passed allowing for their detention without trial.
But, on the eve of the legislation coming into force in December 2001, Qatada went on the run. He was one of Britain’s most wanted men, but avoided capture for ten months.
Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, was finally arrested in an armed raid on a council house in South London in 2002 and held in Belmarsh Prison at a cost of £50,000-a-year.
The most serious offence he can now be charged with in the UK is inciting murder which carries a prison sentence of only seven years.
But because he has already spent nine years awaiting deportation within the UK, even if he were to be found guilty he would automatically be released.
No comments:
Post a Comment