Parts of the evidence against the terrorist suspect Abu Qatada are "a bit thin", according to the judge considering his deportation to face trial in Jordan.
Mr Justice Mitting also questioned how the 51-year-old radical cleric could be fairly convicted if all the alleged co-conspirators in a Jordanian bomb plot had since been acquitted – which they have....
As the hearing began, Mitting, the president of Siac, observed: "The evidence [in one of the plots] seems a bit thin." He also referred to the difficulty of using evidence from alleged co-conspirators who had subsequently had their convictions quashed. In January, the European court of human rights in Strasbourg ruled that evidence of his involvement was obtained by torturing one of his co-defendants and there was a high probability it would be used at a retrial, where it would be "of considerable, perhaps decisive importance".