Abu Qatada

One of the reasons I started to write this blog having moved away from the UK, is that I believe that being away, living under a different set of cultural and legal circumstances, gives me a different perspective on what is going on. Expats see things through two or three different prisms.

And there is a strange matter going on now, where we need to take a pace back. It concerns a man called Abu Qatada (at least that is the name he goes under at present: he was born Omar Othman in, of all places, Bethlehem). Mr. Qatada is a citizen of Jordan. He entered Britain in 1993 using a forged passport, and fraudulently obtained asylum. He is believed by the British authorities, and by the United Nations, to be a spokesman and trainer for Al-Qaeda, and to be guilty of incitement to religious hatred, violence and murder. In short a nasty piece of work.

Mr Qatada has been in prison in Britain for most of the last ten years, and I must say I am not particularly happy about this. He hasn't been prosecuted with any crime, it is said because to do so would reveal the names of British agents who have infiltrated his associates, and put their lives at risk. Now a judge, rightly in my view, has said we have to let him go.

Back to basics. What should we do with illegal immigrants who are nasty pieces of work? Deport them of course. But the European court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has said we can't deport him, first because he might be tortured (he is accused of a number of serous crimes in Jordan); we gained assurances from Jordan that they would not torture him. Then we couldn't deport him in case information gained in the use of torture were used at his trial.

This is a piece of nonsense. Next they will be saying that the traffic in Amman puts his life at risk every time he crosses a road. There are plenty of aspects one doesn't like about foreign jurisdictions, even those of European countries using the Napoleonic code, but we put up with them and recognise them and so we do with Jordan. Mr. Qatada, who is regarded as a danger to the UK, should be put on the next plane. All the ECHR can do is write us a letter saying we shouldn't have done that, as they have with France and Italy. It isn't so bad.

Britain can be proud that it has offered a shelter to people from all over the world who are in distress, from Jews to Africans to Huguenots. Mr Qatada has abused this shelter. he must forfeit it.

There is a more important matter here, though. I want the final court in Britain to be the British Supreme Court, not some foreign assembly containing people some of whom are not even proper lawyers. How can they complain about Jordan when they allow Romanians as judges? We should stick with the Human Rights Act, even though most if it is sanctimonious drivel, but withdraw our allegiance from the Court.