Abu Qatada extradition ruling on Monday

British judges will on Monday announce their decision on an appeal by terror suspect Abu Qatada against his extradition to Jordan, the judicial office said. The Jordanian national, an Islamist preacher who has been described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, was convicted in his absence in Jordan in 1998 for involvement in terror attacks. The judicial office said on Thursday that the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which is hearing Abu Qatada's appeal, would hand down its judgment at 1200 GMT on November 12. Britain is moving to send him to Jordan after interior minister Theresa May was given assurances by the Jordanian authorities that no evidence gained through torture would be used against him in a retrial on his return. The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had ruled earlier this year that the 51-year-old could not be deported while there was a "real risk that evidence obtained by torture will be used against him". But when the British immigration commission heard Abu Qatada's appeal last month its leader, senior judge John Mitting, said that some of the evidence against him was "extremely thin". Abu Qatada has spent most of the last seven years in British jails and is being held in a high-security prison while he fights deportation. In October Britain extradited another radical Islamist preacher, Abu Hamza, and four other terror suspects were to the United States on Saturday at the end of a long legal battle.