Jordan judge pospones verdict in Abu Qatada trial News
Jordan judge pospones verdict in Abu Qatada trial

[JURIST] A judge presiding over the case against radical Jordan cleric Abu Qatada [BBC profile; JURIST news archive] on Sunday stated he was delaying the pending verdict for further examination of the case. According to Judge Ahmed al-QatarnehIt, a decision on the charges against Qatada will now be issued on September 24 [AP report]. Qatada is facing charges for plotting to attack Israelis, Americans and other Westerners. It is claimed that in 2000, Qatada played a role in an attempted attack on tourists during the Jordanian New Year celebration. In June a three-man civilian panel in Jordan declared the radical preacher not guilty of terrorism offenses [JURIST report] relating to an alleged plot in 1998 on the American school in Amman. Qatada remains imprisoned while he awaits a verdict.

Qatada, previously described as “Osama Bin Laden’s right hand man in Europe,” was held in the UK [JURIST report] for more than a decade since he was arrested in 2002 under the Anti-terrorism, Crime, and Security Act 2001 [Guardian UK backgrounder]. Qatada was sentenced [Reuters report] in absentia to life in prison by a Jordanian court before his deportation, but when he returned to Jordan at the end of 2013 he pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to terrorism charges. The June ruling marks the first of two challenges to overturn this conviction in his home country of Jordan. Both Jordan and the UK [JURIST reports] have denied bail to Qatada, and the judicial proceedings surrounding his imprisonment and convictions have garnered significant international attention, as the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) [official website] in 2009 ordered [JURIST report] the UK to pay £2,500 in damages to Qatada after determining that he was imprisoned by the UK in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights [text].