By Agence France Presse (AFP)
LONDON: Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, who was arrested in Britain last week, appeared in court Wednesday as a probe got under way into an apparent leak of claims he was planning to flee to Lebanon. Qatada, once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, has been convicted of terrorism charges in his homeland of Jordan.
But Britain cannot deport him there due to a court ruling in May which found that if it did, he could face mistreatment.
He appeared before a Special Immigration Appeals Commission hearing in London after being arrested Saturday.
Andrew O'Connor, the lawyer for the Home Office which wants his bail revoked, said "inquiries were being made" into a report in The Sun newspaper that Qatada planned to flee Britain to Lebanon.
"If as it appears much of the report in Monday's edition of The Sun was based on a briefing from within the government, that briefing was unauthorized," he said. "That report is of real concern and inquiries are being made."
The Sun said it had obtained an audio recording in which Omar Bakri, an Islamist cleric in Lebanon who is barred from Britain for his radical views, suggested that Abu Qatada could be smuggled out of the country.
But Bakri vehemently denied the claim in a statement to AFP in Beirut.
"This is a groundless story, made up from start to finish, it is a lie made up by Sun writers in order to justify a new detention of Sheikh Abu Qatada."
Qatada's London home was searched a month ago and among the items found was a video showing him preaching in defiance of his bail conditions, the court was told.
But his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said this actually showed him talking to his children and argued the evidence presented in public was "manifestly insufficient" to justify revoking bail.
Judge John Mitting agreed, although the hearing will also hear other evidence in private, when more sensitive intelligence material is likely to be discussed.
Abu Qatada arrived in Britain in 1993 on a forged United Arab Emirates passport and claimed asylum, gaining refugee status in 1994.
He was arrested in 2002 and spent three years in a high-security prison in London.
At the end of the prison term he was released, although made subject to a control order - a loose form of house arrest - but returned to jail in August 2005 as part of a crackdown against Islamist extremism after the London bombings the previous month. - AFP
LONDON: Radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, who was arrested in Britain last week, appeared in court Wednesday as a probe got under way into an apparent leak of claims he was planning to flee to Lebanon. Qatada, once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, has been convicted of terrorism charges in his homeland of Jordan.
But Britain cannot deport him there due to a court ruling in May which found that if it did, he could face mistreatment.
He appeared before a Special Immigration Appeals Commission hearing in London after being arrested Saturday.
Andrew O'Connor, the lawyer for the Home Office which wants his bail revoked, said "inquiries were being made" into a report in The Sun newspaper that Qatada planned to flee Britain to Lebanon.
"If as it appears much of the report in Monday's edition of The Sun was based on a briefing from within the government, that briefing was unauthorized," he said. "That report is of real concern and inquiries are being made."
The Sun said it had obtained an audio recording in which Omar Bakri, an Islamist cleric in Lebanon who is barred from Britain for his radical views, suggested that Abu Qatada could be smuggled out of the country.
But Bakri vehemently denied the claim in a statement to AFP in Beirut.
"This is a groundless story, made up from start to finish, it is a lie made up by Sun writers in order to justify a new detention of Sheikh Abu Qatada."
Qatada's London home was searched a month ago and among the items found was a video showing him preaching in defiance of his bail conditions, the court was told.
But his lawyer Edward Fitzgerald said this actually showed him talking to his children and argued the evidence presented in public was "manifestly insufficient" to justify revoking bail.
Judge John Mitting agreed, although the hearing will also hear other evidence in private, when more sensitive intelligence material is likely to be discussed.
Abu Qatada arrived in Britain in 1993 on a forged United Arab Emirates passport and claimed asylum, gaining refugee status in 1994.
He was arrested in 2002 and spent three years in a high-security prison in London.
At the end of the prison term he was released, although made subject to a control order - a loose form of house arrest - but returned to jail in August 2005 as part of a crackdown against Islamist extremism after the London bombings the previous month. - AFP
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