Bill for Abu Qatada saga hits £3m ...

Family have been claiming benefits since they arrived in Britain in 1993

• Legal battle to avoid deportation has raged for over a decade - funded by taxpayers

FAILING to kick radical cleric Abu Qatada out of the country has cost taxpayers at least £3million, figures have revealed.

The huge bill, which has been run up over more than a decade since he was first arrested, is more than twice earlier estimates.

The revelation comes ahead of tomorrow’s ruling by European judges on whether Qatada’s appeal against deportation should be allowed to go ahead.

Laughing at British 'justice': Qatada smirks as he is arrested earlier this month

If his case is accepted by the European Court of Human Rights, it is likely to prompt a fresh bid for him to be released on bail.

The issue for the panel of five judges meeting in Strasbourg tomorrow is whether Qatada’s appeal was lodged in time and should now be heard by the court’s Grand Chamber.

Last week the Home Office confirmed the running total of its legal bill for trying to deport Qatada, a Jordanian, is £825,000.

It is thought the hate preacher – who has been given full access to legal aid – has run up a similar bill thwarting efforts to kick him out.

Taxpayers have also had to cover the cost of keeping Qatada in a maximum security prison for more than eight years, at a cost of some £850,000.

Since 2005, he has spent nearly a year on bail, leading to huge costs for the police and security services to make sure he does not flee.

In addition, Qatada and his family have been in receipt of state benefits since they arrived in Britain in September 1993.

He was also given £2,500 in compensation by the European Court of Human Rights in 2009 for ‘unlawful detention’.

Jonathan Isaby, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘Taxpayers will be angry and dismayed by this latest estimate of the cost.

‘By blocking Qatada’s deportation, the European Court of Human Rights is forcing taxpayers to continue coughing up for this vile hate preacher.

The Government should be taking urgent action to bring this case to a swift and satisfactory conclusion. Quite simply, he is not entitled to be here and we should be free to deport him.’

The Mail can also reveal the extent of Government efforts to recover some of the cost of Qatada’s legal aid bill.

When he was arrested, officials discovered more than £200,000 in his bank account. The money was frozen by the Treasury and since 2009 some £217,286.57 has been seized.

But that is eclipsed by the amount he has cost taxpayers.

Last week immigration minister Damian Green said that since 2002 Home Office legal costs totalled £825,000.

He added: ‘The case is ongoing and so further costs are likely to be incurred.’

Qatada, 51, is represented by Gareth Peirce, of Birnberg Peirce & Partners, and Edward Fitzgerald QC. It is thought his defence costs are likely to total a similar amount.

The cost of locking up one prisoner in a maximum security unit is estimated at £100,000 a year. 

Qatada has been held in both Belmarsh and Long Lartin prisons.

Qatada was detained by Home Office officials last month after ministers gained assurances from Jordan which they say will allow him to be sent back for trial.

In January the European Court of Human Rights said Qatada could not be deported as he may be tried on the basis of evidence gained under torture.

Home Secretary Theresa May ordered his re-arrest on April 17 after she was told the deadline for him to appeal to the Grand Chamber of the Strasbourg court had passed at midnight on the 16th.

Playing the system: Qatada has run up a huge legal bill over a decade

But Qatada’s lawyers filed appeal papers with the court just before midnight on the 17th, claiming the Home Office got its dates wrong.

A panel of judges will now make a decision on whether to accept the appeal, but will not publish its reasons or indicate what the real deadline was.

A successful appeal could mean further delays of up to two years. And that is likely to prompt a fresh bail appeal.

The immigration judge who last month ruled Qatada should stay behind bars has said he will reconsider freeing him if he thinks deportation ‘is not imminent’.

Qatada was first arrested after the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. In total he has spent more than eight years in jail.

A spokesman for the Legal Services Commission said: ‘The Commission has done everything in its power to ensure Abu Qatada contributes to his legal costs.

'Aid for Special Immigration Appeals Commission cases is only available if the applicant passes strict financial means and legal merits tests.’