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Abu Qatada: Trial date set for cleric | Abu Qatada: Trial date set for cleric |
(35 minutes later) | |
The trial of radical cleric Abu Qatada, deported from the UK in July, is to begin in Jordan next week, his lawyer says. | The trial of radical cleric Abu Qatada, deported from the UK in July, is to begin in Jordan next week, his lawyer says. |
He will stand trial on 10 December for terror offences after an eight-year battle against deportation. | |
That fight through various courts ended after the UK and Jordan signed a treaty agreeing that evidence obtained through torture would not be used against him. | |
If convicted he could face at least 15 years in detention, AFP is reporting. | |
Defence lawyer Taysir Diab told AFP he would meet his client on Saturday ahead of the trial opening. | |
The preacher, who is in his 50s, was convicted in absentia of plots against Westerners in Jordan in 1999 and 2000. | |
This latest court case is a retrial for those offences. | |
Abu Qatada, a Palestinian-Jordanian, was first arrested in the UK in 2001 over the alleged offences in Jordan and had been resisting deportation since 2005. | |
After his removal to a high security jail near Jordanian capital Amman in July, Home Secretary Theresa May said the UK government had been "vindicated". |