Cost of letting hate preacher Abu Qatada out of jail

The cost of keeping watch on Abu Qatada on bail is around £5million a year - a hundred times more than keeping him in a high-security jail.

Authorities have to monitor every move he makes just to ensure he does not escape and the surveillance operation is costing approximately £100,000 per week.

It is has been circulated by the police that this shocking amount of money could lead to up to a dozen murder investigations remaining unsolved every year.

Qatada’s bail conditions are set so he must adhere to a 22-hour curfew which allows him out of his home for just two one-hour periods each day, and he is also banned from using a mobile phone and is only allowed to meet people who have been pre-approved by the Home Secretary, Theresa May.

The tight security regime has meant that dozens of police officers and intelligence agents have been drafted in for the comprehensive surveillance operation.

Qatada's home telephone is monitored and every word spoken is recorded and analysed by an officer at a police listening station. An interpreter is also on hand to transcribe any conversations held in Arabic.

After his release from jail last month, the terror suspect has told relatives in his native Jordan that he is the ‘happiest man in England’ and his wife and five children are said to be delighted as their new home has more bedrooms, a bigger garden and more fittings, all funded by the taxpayer of course.

Qatada, once known as ‘Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe’, had initially moved into a £400,000 property in Wembley, North London, organised by the local authority, where his family are estimated to be paying £1,900 a month rent which they fund through benefits.

However, after complaints from the property’s owner the 51-year-old requested a move, as the landlord was furious to discover he had unwittingly allowed the Islamic hate preaching cleric to become his tenant.

Ibrahim Othman, Qatada’s brother, said: ‘He told us they have now given him a very nice new place, bigger than the first house he went to after the British released him from Long Lartin prison in February.

‘He is really enjoying his new home and so are his family. The inside is very modern and has been done up more nicely, it has more bedrooms and a larger garden.

‘It is better for the family. They are all very happy in the larger house.

‘My brother cannot work so the British government fund his family to live there. The new house is costing more but he does not have to pay it because there is no way he can earn money.’

Othman continued ‘My brother says nobody on their street seems to know that they have moved in. He likes that because there is so much hatred against him in England now.

‘He just wants to be happy with his family as he is at the moment. He wants the simple life. Right now he is the happiest man in England.’

Despite being allowed to leave his home for two hours per day he is said to prefer to stay in his luxurious home, also in Wembley, and fill in his days reading Islamic texts and watching Islamic TV.

Qatada is also keeping a keen eye on the British media reports about him, his brother said!

‘He told me he is very unhappy with what has been written about him in the Daily Mail. He is far more pleased with the BBC which has been much more favourable about him in its coverage. That’s what he likes to see.’

Bosses at the BBC had told its journalists not to describe Qatada as an extremist but to refer to him as a radical after they were accused of trying too hard to be political correct!

Qatada was born Omar Othman, but when he reached the age of 19 he gave himself the name Abu Qatada after an Islamic scholar he idolised.

In 1993, travelling on a false United Arab Emirates passport he was allowed to enter Britain and claimed asylum even though his own family admitted there was no distinct threat against him from the authorities in Jordan at the time.

His new home in London is a far cry from his decaying family home in Jordan where twenty people are said to live which include 14 children, his parents, and his three brothers.

Qatada is wanted in Jordan on terror charges, but European judges halted his deportation from Britain,

The European Court of Human Rights ruled that Qatada could not be sent home without guarantees from Jordan that evidence gained through torture would not be used against him.

The Home Secretary travelled to Jordan this month to try to negotiate a deal that would allow Britain to deport him