Bilal Abdul Kareem Journalist
Abu Qatada, who was born Omar Mahmoud Othman, spent more than 10 years in British Prisons while never having been convicted of a crime. Jordanian authorities had been seeking his extradition to Amman as he had been convicted of terrorism related charges in absentia. The British news media had a field day demonizing Abu Qatada and held him up as the “poster person” for what is wrong with Islam in the UK and around the world. It was later revealed and acknowledged both by UK authorities and the European court for human rights that the evidence gained against Abu Qatada was gained by way of torture.
After some years Abu Qatada lost his bid to block being extradited to his home country of Jordan, however there was an agreement between UK and Jordanian authorities that Abu Qatada was to be given a new trial and the evidence that was elicited through torture was invalid. After a new trial in Jordan Abu Qatada was cleared of ALL charges and released.
In a time when the debate is raging regarding the heavy handed tactics of the security services in the case of Mohamed Emwazi aka Jihadi John, we must look at this miscarriage of justice and how it came about. For the first time, Bilal Abdul Kareem sat down with Abu Qatada wherein he discusses his case. In part 2 Abu Qatada will discuss the entity known as ISIS.
