Abu Qatada Deportation

[bookboo]

I'm trying to understand the technicalities of this case. Presumably He fought all the way to the ECtHR and they ruled that he should be deported. Somehow he has now delayed, so what happens now? Isn't the ECtHR the final appellate court?

[New Judge]

Yes it is.

The latest problem is that the ECHR ruled that Abu Qatada could be deported back on 17th January. Both he and the government had three months to appeal that decision. The government believed that the three months expired at midnight on the 16th April and so he was arrested in preparation for his deportation to face trial in Jordan. Quatada’s lawyers argue that the three months expired on midnight on 17th April and earlier that day they launched an appeal against the January decision.

It is now going to take a panel of five of the most senior judges in Europe to determine what, effectively, is an administrative matter, i.e. what is the date of a deadline set at three months from 17th January.

As a well known Daily MAil journalist might write, you couldn't make it up.

[sammmo]

in the meantime ..who paying for all this ? It cirtainly isn't the ECTHR...

[New Judge]

Who do you guess is paying for it, sammmo? (Clue: the same people who have been paying for his legal fees as well as his and his family's subsistence in the nineteen years he has been here).

[bookboo]

Thanks New Judge, that helps

[albaqwerty]

Couldn't he just be deported and if his appeal is upheld Jordan could send him back??


(tongue is firmly in cheek)

[New Judge]

Ha ha haaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

(Sides split with laughter/despair).