Radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada arrived in Amman on Sunday after Britain deported him to face terror charges ending a decade long legal battle, a Jordanian government official said.
“Abu Qatada landed at Marka airport in east Amman,” the official told media on condition of anonymity.
“He was escorted by British and Jordanian guards, who handed him over to state security court prosecutors.”
Jordan vowed “credibility and transparency” in dealing with Abu Qatada.
The Palestinian-born preacher, 53,was taken from prison in an armoured police van to a military airfield on the outskirts of London, where he boarded a privately chartered jet that lifted off into the night sky, photographers said.
“The government is keen on credibility and transparency in handling the issue of Abu Qatada,” who was flown out of Britain at 0146 GMT on Sunday, Jordan’s information minister and government spokesman Mohammad Momani, told the state-run Petra news agency.
“The deportation of Abu Qatada, which came as a result of Jordanian-British coordination and cooperation sends a message to all fugitives that they will face justice in Jordan.”
Britain was finally able to expel the father of five, once dubbed Osama bin Laden’s deputy in Europe, after the two governments last month formally approved the so-called “Treaty on Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters” treaty, guaranteeing that evidence obtained by torture would not be used against him in any retrial.
Home Secretary Theresa May said his departure proved that the government’s efforts to deport him had been worth the £1.7 million ($2.7 million, two million euros) legal bill and would be “welcomed by the British public.”
“This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country,” she said in a statement released seconds after Abu Qatada’s plane took off.
AFP
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