A panel of judges is now considering a request by alleged terrorism suspect ‘Abu Qatada’ for his case to be referred to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights.
A statement released today by the European Court of Human Rights reads: “On 17 January 2012 a Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights delivered a judgment in the case Othman (Abu Qatada) v. the United Kingdom (application no. 8139/09) in which it found that diplomatic assurances would protect Abu Qatada from torture but that he could not be deported to Jordan while there remained a real risk that evidence obtained by torture would be used against him.
“At 11 p.m. French time on Tuesday 17 April 2012, the Court received a letter from Omar Othman asking for his case to be referred to the Grand Chamber. Mr Othman considered that the Chamber, in its judgment of 17 January 2012, was wrong to decide that he would not be at risk of torture if deported to Jordan.
The Panel will decide on whether the referral request complies with the conditions laid down in Article 43 of the European Convention on Human Rights for the admissibility of a referral request and, if so, whether the case should be referred to the Grand Chamber.”
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