Qatada faces tough bail conditions (From Your Local Guardian)

Qatada faces tough bail conditions

6:22pm Monday 13th February 2012 in National News © Press Association 2011

A radical cleric who poses a serious risk to the UK's national security will be freed on bail under some of the toughest conditions imposed since the September 11 terror attacks.

Abu Qatada will be banned from taking his youngest child to school, must stay inside his home for 22 hours a day and cannot talk to anyone who has not been vetted by the security services first when he is released from jail.

Once described by a judge as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, he will also be banned from meeting 27 named individuals, including new al Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Qatada, 51, has been held for six-and-a-half years, more than any other detainee in modern immigration history, while fighting deportation.

But he will be released from Long Lartin high-security prison in Evesham, Worcestershire, after applying for bail when human rights judges in Europe ruled he could not be deported without assurances from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.

Under the terms of his release, the Home Secretary has just three months to show the Government is making significant progress in securing his deportation or risk Qatada being freed from his bail conditions.

These were agreed between lawyers earlier on Monday as a Jordanian government minister said the country was working with the UK Government to give the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) the assurances it needed.

Qatada will only be allowed outside his London home in a prescribed area for two one-hour periods each day - and he will be kept in during the school run, sources said.

An edited eight-page summary of the terms released by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) showed he will be banned from meeting 27 people, including al-Zawahiri, radical cleric Abu Hamza, and terror suspect Babar Ahmad.

Downing Street said the Government was considering "all the options" for removing Qatada "at the earliest opportunity".