Jordan Pledges Fair Trial For Abu Qatada
A senior Jordanian government minister has told Sky News that the radical cleric Abu Qatada will receive a new, fair trial with full rights, if he is extradited to Jordan.
Jordan's legislative affairs minister, Ayman Odeh, met a delegation of UK Home Office officials in the capital, Amman, on Tuesday morning.
Home Office minister James Brokenshire led the delegation on a mission to seek assurances from the Jordanians that evidence obtained through torture would not be used in any criminal case against Qatada.
In January, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that any move to extradite the 51-year-old cleric to Jordan, where he is wanted on terrorism charges, would be in breach of his right to a fair trial.
Qatada was released from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire on Monday night, after immigration court judges granted him bail.
He is subject to strict bail conditions. He will have to obey a 22-hour-a-day home curfew, wear an electronic tag and is banned from using the internet and telephone.
Mr Odeh told Sky News Middle East correspondent Emma Hurd that Jordan introduced an amendment to its constitution in Oct 2011 to forbid torture and outlaw the use of evidence obtained through torture - or the threat of it - in trials.
He said the European Court of Human Rights had not taken this into account when making its ruling on Qatada last month.
Mr Odeh said that Qatada's previous two convictions in Jordan were in absentia.
He said the convictions would be cancelled on his return to Jordan and he would be given a fresh trial.
The minister denied claims by human rights organisations that the use of torture was routine in Jordan - but admitted that there may have been a few incidents.
He said he thought that statements made before the European Court of Human Rights had been unfair on Jordan, which he said had an independent judiciary.