LONDON, May 9: Abu Qatada, once described as Osama bin Laden’s ‘right-hand man in Europe’, has no grounds to stay in Britain and should be deported to his native Jordan, a court in Britain heard on Tuesday.

Abu Qatada, who began an appeal on Tuesday against a British government decision to return him to Jordan, is said to have widespread connections to Al Qaeda and other extremist groups and people in Algeria, Egypt and Pakistan.

Britain claims the 44-year-old, who was born Omar Mahmud Mohammed Othman, is a risk to national security and his continuing presence is ‘not conducive to the public good’.

But he claims that to return him to Jordan, where he has been convicted in his absence of terrorist-related offences, would breach his human rights because he could be ill-treated or tortured.

He also claims he would not face a fair trial and could face the death penalty.

But lawyer Ian Burnett, representing the British government, told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission in London that the Amman government had given ‘crystal clear’ assurances he would not be at risk.

The two countries signed a so-called memorandum of understanding (MoU) last year in which Jordan guaranteed to respect his human rights.

Setting out the government’s case to dismiss the appeal, Mr Burnett argued that those assurances were sufficient to allow his return and Abu Qatada had not proved his case that he was at ‘real risk’ of personal harm.

Mr Burnett admitted that the memorandum was ‘not, strictly speaking, a document that is legally binding in international law’.

But he insisted it would be ‘extraordinary’ if the Jordanian government did not keep its pledge to uphold Abu Qatada’s human rights.—AFP