The British Government on Sunday deported radical Islamic preacher, Abu Qatada, to face trial in Jordan.
Qatada’s deportation brings to an end eight years legal battle to repatriate him to Jordan where he is to face charges for alleged terror.
Although Britain had accused Qatada of having links to al-Qaeda and threatening Britain’s national security, no formal charge was brought against him.
Qatada’s deportation came after the UK and Jordan had ratified a treaty, ensuring that the Jordanian cleric would face trial without use of evidence obtained by torture.
The Western Europe Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria reports that Qatada, popularly called Radical Preacher, had not visited Jordan since 1993.
Meanwhile, the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, said he was “delighted” that Qatada’s deportation had been achieved.
Similarly, Home Secretary, Theresa May, said she was glad that the government’s determination to remove Qatada had been “vindicated.”
May said: “This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country.
“We need to make sense of our human rights laws and remove the many layers of appeals available to foreign nationals we want to deport.
“We are taking steps through the new Immigration Bill to put this right.”
The BBC reported that Qatada was accompanied on the flight by six people from Jordan, comprising three security officials, a psychologist, a medical examiner and his Jordanian lawyer.
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