Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - Jordanian judicial authorities on Sunday charged Jordanian Palestinian-born cleric Abu Qatada with terrorism offenses, hours after he arrived in Amman after being deported from the UK.

The State Security Court, Jordan's military tribunal that oversees terrorism cases, ordered the detention of Abu Qatada 15 days pending investigation.

Abu Qatada reportedly denied the charges brought against him, which include conspiracy to carry out terrorist attacks in Jordan dating back to 1999 and 2000.

Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Othman, arrived at Marka airport east of Amman around 10 AM on a flight that left UK's RAF Northolt.

A Jordanian official source told Ammon News that the 53 year old man arrived in Amman on Sunday after a 20-year absence from the country.

Abu Qatada will be interrogated and retried facing terrorism charges since he was convicted in 1999 and 2000 in Jordan, Jordan's government spokesperson Mohammad Momani said.

Momani said that concerned Jordanian authorities received Abu Qatada immediately after he arrived in Jordan.

Momani said that Abu Qatada will be re-tried in accordance with the Jordanian law, noting that he will receive a fair trial in line with international agreements and human rights accords as the Kingdom was a party to these agreements.

The spokesperson said that anyone who stood trial before the Jordanian courts, including Abu Qatada, will receive a fair trial and neither the government nor any other party will interfere in the trial procedures as the constitution ensured the independence of the judiciary, Petra reported.

"In line with the recently signed agreements between Jordan and Britain, the Jordanian authorities have the right to offer legal assistance to the concerned British authorities to freeze the assets of anyone convicted by the Jordanian courts and exchange data regarding any such convict who could be present on British territory," Momani added.

Abu Qatada was first arrested in the UK over alleged terror connections in 2001, after which the UK spent over eight years trying to deport him.

Jordan and the UK signed an extradition treaty agreeing that evidence obtained through torture would not be used against him, following Abu Qatada's repeated claims that once deported to Jordan, he would be tortured.

Abu Qatada was accompanied on the flight of around five hours by six people from Jordan, comprising three security officials, a psychologist, a medical examiner and his Jordanian lawyer, the BBC reported.

Meanwhile, the Jordanian official source said that a cadre from the Ministry of Justice and Interior Ministry accompanied Abu Qatada on the flight, in addition to British security officers and lawyers.

Qatada has been in and out of jail since his arrest in 2001 and was sent back to prison last March for breaching his bail conditions.

He was condemned to death in 1999 for conspiracy to carry out attacks including one on the American school in Amman, but the sentence was immediately reduced to life imprisonment with hard labour.

In 2000, he was sentenced to 15 years for plotting to carry out attacks on tourists during the millennium celebrations in Jordan.

Under Jordanian law, Qatada faces retrial for the offences on his return, because the original convictions were made in absentia.

British Home Secretary Theresa May said she was glad that the government's determination to remove him had been "vindicated".

"This dangerous man has now been removed from our shores to face the courts in his own country," she said.

She added that she wanted to streamline such deportation processes in future.

"I am also clear that we need to make sense of our human rights laws and remove the many layers of appeals available to foreign nationals we want to deport.

"We are taking steps - including through the new Immigration Bill - to put this right."

The 53-year-old had been held at Belmarsh prison in south-east London, from where a convoy of three police vehicles left at midnight.

A family friend who went with relatives including Abu Qatada's father and brothers to Jordan's Marka military airport told BBC Middle East correspondent Yolande Knell that he was taken straight to the state security court.

He faces a retrial for plotting bomb attacks against American and Israeli tourists during Jordan's millennium celebrations.

A Jordanian government spokesman confirmed the legal process against him had started and reiterated assurances that the trial would meet international standards.

The cleric - who did not get to see his family - is expected to be taken to either Juwaida or Muwaqqar prison, BBC's correspondent said.

'Questions to answer'

Abu Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, was granted asylum in the UK in 1994 but the Security Service came to view him as a threat as his views hardened.

Richard Reid, the would-be mid-Atlantic shoe bomber, and Zacarias Moussaoui, both jailed for involvement in terrorism, are said to have sought religious advice from him.

The cleric's sermons were also found in a flat in the German city of Hamburg used by some of those involved in 9/11.

He vowed to fight the UK's 2005 decision to deport him to Jordan to face retrial over bomb plot allegations - setting in motion an eight-year legal battle.

The dispute continued until May this year, when the cleric accepted that his right to a fair trial there was protected by the new treaty between Jordan and the UK.

Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the deportation and backed Mrs May's call for a more streamlined process in future.

She said: "The home secretary has been right to get further guarantees from Jordan and we should welcome the series of agreements from the Jordanian government too.

"We must ensure that delays like this do not last for so long in future and that the system is reformed to make it faster."

Keith Vaz, chairman of Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee, questioned why the government had not started work on a treaty with Jordan at an earlier stage in the process.

"The home secretary's legal advisers will have questions to answer as to why they didn't conceive of this scheme earlier which would have prevented a cost to the taxpayer of £1.7m." (Ammon News and Agencies)