Radical preacher Abu Qatada cleared of terror charges in Jordan

Radical cleric Abu Qatada, who was deported from the UK last July, has been acquitted by a military court in Jordan of plotting attacks on Americans and Israelis. The decision was handed down by civilian judges in the Jordanian capital Amman. The court ruled there was insufficient evidence against Qatada, and his lawyer, Husein Mubaidin, said he expected his client to be released within hours.

He can’t come back, and he won’t come back. He is a Jordanian and he does not have a UK passport. He would not be granted permission to enter the UK, end of story.

A Downing Street spokesman who was asked three months ago whether the UK would welcome Abu Qatada back if cleared

The Muslim preacher - once referred to as “Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe” by a Spanish judge - was charged with involvement in plans to target Israeli and U.S. tourists and Western diplomats in Jordan in 2000 - the so-called “millennium plot”. The 53-year-old Palestinian-Jordanian preacher was also acquitted in June in another case, a foiled 1999 plan to attack an American school in Amman. The cleric had already been convicted and sentenced on both charges by a trial in absentia, but had avoided Jordanian justice after being granted asylum in the UK. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges.

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