Lawyer: Qatada's detention time 'unlawful'

Radical preacher Abu Qatada's detention should be ruled "unlawful", the High Court in London heard Tuesday. His lawyer told two judges in London: "Our submission is that the detention has already gone on for so long as to be disproportionate and unlawful." Qatada, who is fighting deportation to Jordan, is asking the court for permission to challenge his ongoing detention by Home Secretary Theresa May. The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) ruled two months ago his detention was lawful. Leaving him free during heightened security for the 2012 Olympics would be "exceptionally problematic", a judge said. Edward Fitzgerald lawyer, for Qatada, who is referred to in legal documents as Omar Mahmoud Othman, told the judges that a seven-year period pending deportation "is so long as to make further detention unwarranted". He pointed out that deportation was not "imminent", adding: "That is to say it cannot be said that deportation can reasonably be expected to take place within a matter of months." Fitzgerald told the court: "There comes a point where detention is just too long, and this is the longest period of administrative detention, so far as we know, in modern English history." He said: "It cannot be right, when we are already at seven years - and when there is an inevitable likelihood this is going to go on for at least another year - for there to be continued detention of Othman." In this latest legal action Qatada is seeking to be freed from custody while he fights deportation. His last appeal to the European Court of Human Rights over his removal failed on May 9. Qatada, who is said to have wide and high-level support among Islamic extremists, was convicted in his absence in Jordan of involvement with terror attacks in 1998 and faces a retrial in his home country. Mrs May restarted deportation proceedings in April after she received assurances from the Jordanian authorities that evidence obtained by torture would not be used against him. His legal team say they will take the battle back to the European courts if Siac rules against him at a tribunal hearing fixed for October. Qatada, who is accused of involvement in several bomb attacks, is being held at high-security Long Lartin Prison in Worcestershire, southern England. A judge described him as the late Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe. A Home Office statement issued before today's hearing said: "Abu Qatada's legal team are clearly clutching at straws in their attempts to get this dangerous man released, when jail is where he belongs. "We will strongly resist any attempt to overturn the court's decision to keep him locked up ahead of his removal from the UK." The hearing continues.