Official: Qatada to receive just trial in Jordan

February 19, 2009

Jordan's Justice Minister Ayman Odeh said Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric, would receive a just trial if deported by Britain to Jordan, local daily The Jordan Times reported Thursday.

"The Jordanian government was officially notified about the (British) House of Lords' decision and we guarantee that he will receive a fair trial like any other defendant being tried on Jordanian soil," the minister said.

Britain's highest court, the House of Lords, on Wednesday ruled that Abu Qatada can be deported to Jordan, where he has been twice convicted in absentia for plotting terror attacks.

Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Othman Abu Omar, was born in Bethlehem in 1960 and lived in Jordan until 1989 when he fled the country, alleging political persecution.

He has been described as the "spiritual ambassador in Europe" of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Qatada was arrested in London in 2005 with a group of Middle East men deemed a threat to national security, but the country did not have sufficient evidence to put him on trial, British officials have said.