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Britain to Extradite Al-Qa’ida Leader

A high-ranking Jordanian security delegation has arrived in London to take charge of ‘Umar Mahmoud ‘Uthman Abu ‘Umar, aka Abu Qatada, reports the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat.

Abu Qatada, who is considered to be Al-Qa’ida’s ‘spiritual ambassador’ to Europe, is wanted in Jordan for terror activities he allegedly planned and executed in the country. The Jordanian State Security Court has already found the 44-year-old preacher guilty of terrorism offences in his absence.

Former British home secretary David Blunkett described Abu Qatada as the “most significant extremist Islamic preacher in the U.K.” Abu Qatada, a father of five, became one of the UK’s most wanted men in December 2001, when he went on the run on the eve of government moves to introduce new anti-terror laws. Tapes of his sermons were found in a flat used by the Hamburg cell members, who were among those responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States.

In February 2001, Abu Qatada was questioned by anti-terrorism police over alleged connections to a German terror cell. He later spent more than two years at Belmarsh high security prison before being freed on bail in March 2005. Since then he has been subject to a control order.