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A RADICAL MUSLIM preacher suspected of being a key al-Qaida operative in Europe arrived in Jordan today to face retrial on terrorism charges after his deportation from Britain, ending a decade-long legal battle over his fate.
The return of 53-year-old Abu Qatada was viewed as a victory in Jordan, whose 2001 extradition request was blocked in British and European courts for more than a decade over human rights concerns. Britain and Jordan ratified a treaty on torture aimed at easing those worries, clearing the way for his deportation.
Jordan convicted Abu Qatada in absentia on terrorism charges and sentenced him to life in prison in 1999, but that has been lifted now that he faces a new trial.
Jordanian Information Minister Mohammed Momani said the kingdom “is keen on credibility and transparency” in handling Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman. The deportation of the Palestinian-born Jordanian cleric, Momani said, “sends a message to all fugitives that they will face justice in Jordan.”
A plane carrying radical cleric Abu Qatada takes off from RAF Northolt in London for his deportation to Jordan. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Abu Qatada arrived at Amman’s civilian airport on a British aircraft and was whisked in a green SUV, escorted by a 12-car convoy, with masked anti-terrorism police to the nearby premises of the military State Security Court on the outskirts of the Jordanian capital. Police sealed off the street as the convoy drove against traffic to the court building, just across the street from the airport. A crush of journalists was kept at bay by armed policemen.
Abu Qatada’s father, Mahmoud, and an unidentified relative stood at the entrance of the court building, but were not allowed to enter.
“I have nothing to say, except that my son is innocent and I hope the court will set him free,” the father told the Associated Press.
The military prosecutor began questioning Abu Qatada on terrorism-related charges in the presence of his lawyer, Tayseer Thiab, according to one of the prosecutors involved. The military district attorney banned the publication of the prosecutors’ names.
The prosecutor said he expected Abu Qatada to be detained for 15 days, pending further questioning.
In London, British Home Secretary Theresa May had announced Abu Qatada’s departure in a statement, expressing confidence that the UK public would welcome the conclusion of efforts dating back to 2001 to remove the radical cleric.
“This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country,” May said. The Home Office then posted a picture on Twitter of Abu Qatada climbing the steps of a plane.
Britain had tried since 2001 to deport Abu Qatada, but courts had blocked extradition over concerns that evidence obtained under torture could be used against him.
After years of successfully fighting the numerous attempts to expel him from the U.K., Abu Qatada recently indicated he would voluntarily return to Jordan if it and Britain ratified a treaty on torture.
That treaty — which explicitly bans the use of evidence “where there are serious and credible allegations that a statement from a person has been obtained by torture or ill-treatment” — was ratified by Britain and Jordan last month.
It paved the way for the long-awaited removal of the man described in courts in Britain and Spain as a senior al-Qaida figure in Europe who had close ties to the late Osama bin Laden.
In 1999, a Jordanian military court sentenced Abu Qatada to death in absentia for conspiracy to carry out terror attacks, including a plot on the country’s American school in Amman. But the sentence was immediately commuted to life in jail with hard labor.
In 2000, the same court sentenced him to 15 years for plotting to carry out terror attacks on Israeli and American tourists and Western diplomats during the country’s millennium celebrations.
In both trials, Abu Qatada was in London, where he entered on a forged passport in 1993 and was granted asylum a year later.
- AP
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Why can’t they just sell something really wasteful like RTE instead?
Nobody would touch it David, It’s a sinking ship.
A fair point Dermot. I didn’t consider the fact that nobody would be dumb enough to buy it.
Well, let’s take a look at the wages;
€495,000 – Ryan Tubridy
€630,000 – Pat Kenny
€295,000 – Marian Finucane
€300,000 – Joe Duffy
€211,000 – Miriam O’Callaghan
€158,000 – Brendan O’Connor
——————
€3,004,789 – That’s wage bill, just for the main earners.
I was going to go into more detail, but I can’t stomach going any further. We pay those lads, over €3 MILLION PER YEAR. We’re a country of 5 million people. There’s lads at ITV, BBC, Sky News who don’t get paid that. I honestly don’t understand how we can’t say to them, ok, everyone down to €100k. It’s not like they’re going to be poached.
Look at Ryan Tubridy, he couldn’t hold a conversation with a wall.
Offer them 100K or the door and not one of them would leave
@ DublinLad – now to be fair to Ryan, he most definitely could hold a conversation with a wall. And he’d even answer all the wall’s questions too!
Why would they sell there propaganda machine??? The idiots (mainly county mor-ons) who don’t have the Internet still watch it and follow it like sheep. Up FG you boy yeah! UP FF you boy yeah… Utter gobsh-ites
Dermot it is not a sinking ship its a propaganda machine for the current government , how else are they goin to keep people in the dark and feed the fools lies.
Austerity = sale of public assets to the cheapest bidder. Further
I guess at least the bond holders we were forced to pay back will have the cash to buy one of Ireland’s national assets.
For Sale…..one small island, lovely and green. some updating needed but otherwise perfect. private bids in sealed brown envelopes please.
Raiding of the family jewels begins.
We’re becoming more and more like Thachers Britain of the 80′s.
In 8 years, Thatcher turned Britain from the sick man of Europe, to a LEEDING economy. Ireland should wish they had some one like her to get rid of the union barrons fleacing this country. Just look at what ESB pay their workers. NUF SAID>
I come from Britain, I remember the Labour govs 3 day weeks, the blackouts from power co’s on strike. Britain were ruled by the unions. Thatcher put a stop to that. Not one Government in this country will stand up to the unions. Sure, dont they give good jobs to union leaders. Keeps them quiet. Gombeem politics rule this country, and always will.
Leading
How’d the sale of Britains energy companies work out, not too good me thinks. Massive price increases while the companies post record profits. And Britain is in a worse state now than back then. Only so long before the manipulators in the city of London run out of new ideas.
I agree with you, it was sold off from under government controll for the big boys, and boy, did they milk it. Soon to come to Ireland. But as for Mags, she pull Britain up by the bootstraps, and made it great, only foy Labour to spend it all, and more. Selling off utilities was a big misstake, they are the peoples property, and should remain so. And yes, they were a leading economy, till the outher shower got in.
and so it begins, get ready for ever more expensive utility charges…and the goverment of the day will hide behind “it is a private company,it was a commercial decision” Same as they are now in regards to the banks !
Majors no odds whether its commercial, gas prices are regulated by the CER.
50 percent of the money used for job creation measures???.
what do they take us for.Every cent will be thrown down the drain to where the bankers lurk.
And it’s sad because coillte has so much potential and could be a major asset to us
Seeking profitable state assets is crazy. The income achieved reduces taxes for all and the state keeps control of strategically important areas. The Troica deal had a lot of nasty strings attached…..
#selling
this is a disgrace!!!
Selling off key State assets to foreign owned companies will do no favour for this country in the long term!!
Look at Telecom Éireann (now eircom)!! The company has struggled with international players buying it, stripping off key assets for short term gain, then piling the debt used to aquire eircom ontop of the company and selling it on again!
Does the Frence Government sell off EDF or GDF (their state owned energy & gas companies)??
BG Energy is a profitable business and it should remain within Bord Gáis Éireann!!
Fine Gael and Labour are puppets of the Troika and anyone who even thinks of voting Fianna Fáil again (even with Micheál’s passionate speech at the recent Ard Fheis) are dooming this country for future generations!
Emergency General Election ? Can we get rid of this spineless government ? They do nothing but pat themselves on the back for pretending to make the hard decisions when all they do is ‘nothing’ and wait around for the markets to adjust and do what they are told to do by outside sources.
There is no patting on the back Enda et al are spineless incompetents
If the Meath east bye election is anything to go by I don’t think much would change
@JC – emergency general election ! Are you taking the p!ss ? We are all watching our country get flushed down the toilet n best we can do vent our frustration on the journal from the comfort of home. We once had real men and real leaders in this country who would vomit at what is happening now. Change can be brought about because the people hold the power but it doesnt come for free, there are sacrifices. What will you sacrifice ? Can you put your phone or laptop down for a week or 2 ? Doubt it cos we are a nation of self serving cowards, there are no heroes here no more, sadly.
Wow. Sell off out long term assets so we can see short term benefits. Yeah. Makes total sense.
Were the ESB forced years to put up there prices just so other operators could enter the market and make a profit??
Look at what the sale of state assets has done for us so far. Left us with a third world infrastructure and lined the pockets of private investors
Everything to be sold on the cheap now. 1 billion for that. That could be recovered in 3-5 years by the buyer, then it’s money flow for eternity.
Thats the whole point
International Investors: We’re going to loose all our money!
EU: Irish state give them yours to stem the crash.
Irish state: But then we’ll be broke!
No.
EU: You must – look it says so here.
IS: But what’ll we do for money then?
Eu IMF: We’ll loan you some at 8% until you’re back on your feet – If you promise to sell off some of your assets to pay us back sooner.
IS: But we’ll get nothing for them at the moment and anyway who would want to buy them?
International Investors: We’ll take them off your hands….
IS: : o(
Check it out folks… its happening right before our eyes: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2001/apr/29/business.mbas
John pilger has a great documentary on this called “war by any means “i think. It’s pretty much details how the IMF operates and what has they did in the past and currently here.
It is running exactly as per the previous experiments in south america and asia, except those governments (with the exception of Chile until recently) started to protect their citizens before the country was entirely destroyed. The IMF could not believe their luck when meeting Lenihan, who folded immediately, and Noonan who was on-track to the plan, and has continued pushing in spite of the damage to his former country.
Notice that neither property & water taxes, and state asset sales were part of the original MoU, but were slowly ‘reported’ on in subsequent updates. Ireland is slowly becoming the first modern serf nation, and anyone who accepts each of these double tax measures; and even worse, defends; is blinkered beyond belief.
Watched that docu. last night Bren Dan. Good recommendation man, scary stuff.
Thanks ,Tony ,
I wish everybody would watch so as to be aware what is going to happen here and to take action to ensure we don’t end up like the Phillipines.
Pilger’s a fantastic journalist. His stuff is very good. It’s all old stuff but still relevant because absolutely nothing has changed since the 80′s
Big gas and big energy takes over from the troika in running this country. Wait and see.
No problem selling of certain state assets but with a provision included that if the new owners start making a complete pigs ear of things to the detriment of the Irish economy,its people or technological advancement then said state asset gets repossessed by the state. I’m looking at you Eircom.
Eircom turned out to be a disaster.Has been passed around more than a joint at a slumber party.
€1, final offer!
1.50, beat that
But on a serious note, I hate the way our country will be left with nothing but a corrupt government! Absolutely sickens me.
We can all look forward to the inevitable big prices rises to the consumer in future, so.
The state should maintain control of certain areas in the national interest. Gas, Electricity, Water, Health, Education and Police/ Prison services. The rest should be sold asap.
Basic monopoly strategy…..and even they still get it wrong. Sometimes I wonder that they’re actually acutely aware of what they’re doing…..
The service providers who have are reselling (electric ireland, bord gais energy, rte) should be sold off alright with full and transparent competition being available. The infrastructure and “monopoly makers” such as RTE networks, ESB Transmission and the gas distribution services should be retained and improved based on usage by he private service companies.
Water and sewage should never, ever, be privatised. It will result in poor health, lack of cleaning of teeth and body and dehydration.
I’ll offer three fiddy….
Email your local TD’s to voice your anger over this. Soon the will be selling our people, well that’s nearly happening. God spare us from this destruction of our lovely country.
The sale of multiple state assets was in the Fine Gael manifesto. Anyone who voted for them ( and more voted for fg than anyone else) voted for the sale of our assets. Hope people realise what they are voting for in future…….
this will only end in tears for the poor fools on the street!!
It’ll end in tears for ALL of us.
We need a new government fast
Energy security will only become more important in coming years. This plan is alarmingly shortsighted and in terms of the money raised to pay off debts it will go nowhere near solving our problems.
I assume there are people looking at this Gas Act of 1976 (When Our National Gas was disovered) and wondering if it is at all ‘legal’ …. before they sell…
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1976/en/act/pub/0030/print.html
I think we are f@#ked.
What if a Ryanair type company buys the gas supply. Customers will eventually be held to ransom by unscrupulous money hungry profit hungry share holders.
I see a disaster aways down the road.
Watch this ,its very good , from 1992 and still applies today to Us.
have your say