Downing Street Says » Deportations-Abu Qatada

» Monday, February 26, 2007

Deportations-Abu Qatada

Asked for the Prime Minister’s reaction to the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) decision to continue the deportation of Abu Qatada, especially in light of the meeting with King Abdullah, the PMOS said that the Home Office would put out a detailed statement. However, the PMOS drew journalists’ attention firstly to the fact that SIAC had said that Abu Qatada presented a threat to UK’s national security and could be deported. Secondly, the court had recognised the value of Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) and the assurances linked to them. The court had said that "…we saw no justification for the comments from NGOs that the UK Government’s attempt to negotiate an rely on MOUs was an attempt to evade the UK’s international obligation…". The PMOS said that that was important in this case in that we had agreed an MOU with Jordan. However, the significance went beyond this case as well.

Asked if that also applied to the Algerian case, the PMOS replied that he was not going to get drawn into discussions about other cases, but what was important was that the court had said that MOUs did play a valuable role and were legitimate.

Asked what the Prime Minister would discuss with King Abdullah at their meeting this week, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister would obviously be informed from his conversations with President Abbas, as well as Prime Minister Olmert and his contacts with both President Bush and Dr. Rice.

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