Suspected extremists arrested

A fresh legal battle to deport suspected Islamic extremists from Britain began yesterday as police detained 10 foreign nationals, including a radical preacher.

Human rights lawyers attacked the move, which could result in unconvicted Muslims being thrown out of the country and sent to Algeria and Jordan.

Among those detained and later locked in prison is Abu Qatada, a Jordanian cleric previously described as "al Qaeda's ambassador to Europe".

Qatada is one of seven suspects who were previously held at Belmarsh Prison in southeast London, but were freed after a landmark ruling by the House of Lords.

The cleric and the six Algerian Belmarsh suspects were being held under the controversial control orders, a form of house arrest. The seven, plus three other men, were detained during raids in London, Luton, West Midlands, and Leicestershire.

The raids came as the Islamic extremist cleric who fled Britain, Omar Bakri Mohammed, was arrested by Lebanese security forces in Beirut.

Yesterday's unprecedented move has been prompted by the growing frustration at the apparent inability of the courts and police to tackle Islamic extremists accused of threatening national security, but where there is no evidence of criminal activity.

The Home Office has signed a deal with Jordan designed to guarantee deportees will not be killed or tortured on their return to their home country.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke already has the power under the 1971 Immigration Act to deport foreigners he believes pose a threat to national security.

But under international law he has been prevented from deporting people to countries where they face the threat of torture or inhumane treatment.

Qatada now faces being sent back to his homeland of Jordan, where he has been convicted in his absence of terrorism. The 44-year-old was granted asylum 10 years ago. He was arrested in 2002 and was described by a British judge as "a truly dangerous individual".

Human rights groups yesterday expressed their distrust of the "memorandum of agreement" with Jordan, arguing that its Government denies torturing prisoners, something it has been accused of by the United Nations and Amnesty International.

Lawyers for the detained men have pledged to fight their deportations. The cases are likely to follow the pattern of the so-called Belmarsh detainees, locked up without charge or trial for up to three years until Law Lords ruled the measures illegal.

Gareth Peirce, who represents a number of former Belmarsh detainees, said the arrests were "insane, and dangerous government at its worst".

Among the men detained is an Algerian, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who arrived in Britain in 1995, and is accused of fundraising for terror groups with loose links to Osama bin Laden.

Other Algerian detainees are believed to include a man who arrived from Spain in 1998 and claimed asylum. He later absconded from Yarlswood Detention Centre after a fire in February 2002 and was rearrested months later. Another in in his 30s is alleged to have provided satellite phones for extremists.

A fourth arrived in Britain in 1993. He is accused of involvement with a group said to have links to Bin Laden and to sponsor young Muslims to go to Afghanistan for jihad.

- INDEPENDENT