Starmer helped hate preacher Abu Qatada fight his deportation in court
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Sir Keir Starmer represented Abu Qatada in court as the notorious hate preacher fought to avoid deportation from the UK.
Qatada, described as Osama bin Laden’s ambassador in Europe, was represented by Sir Keir at a hearing in 2008. For a decade, British authorities had fought legal battles to have Qatada extradited to Jordan, where he was wanted on terrorism charges.
The revelation of Sir Keir’s role comes as he and John Healey, the shadow defence secretary, will visit British troops deployed near the Russian border and stress Labour’s commitment to Nato on a visit to Estonia.
Sir Keir, who polls suggest is on track to enter No 10 after next year’s general election, will pledge that a government led by him would ensure the UK plays a leading role in defending the High North and other regions against Russian aggression.
Sir Keir, at the time a leading barrister, was one of a number of human rights lawyers who represented Qatada in myriad hearings.
The future Labour leader, instructed by Birnberg Peirce, the human rights law firm, acted for Qatada at a Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) hearing in June 2008.
Two years earlier, Charles Clarke, the then home secretary, had ordered Qatada’s deportation, sparking years of legal wrangling. Theresa May finally succeeded in forcing Qatada’s return to Jordan in 2013.
The total cost to the taxpayer of the long-running case was a reported £1.7 million. A year later, Qatada was acquitted in a Jordanian court of terror charges.
In the 2006 hearing, Sir Keir argued a technical point of law as part of proceedings in which Qatada tried to resist both deportation and imprisonment.
Sir Keir had argued that hearings concerning secret material being used against Qatada should be held in public. He also argued that Qatada’s civil rights – including the right to receive state benefits – were incorporated in English domestic law.
Mr Justice Mitting threw out Sir Keir’s arguments, describing one part of his appeal as “fallacious”.
At the hearing, Sir Keir submitted that “deportation and the revocation of refugee status both interfere with domestic civil rights”, according to the Siac judgment.
Sir Keir had argued that Qatada should not be detained in jail while deportation proceedings had remained ongoing.
Qatada arrived in the UK on a false passport in 1993 and was granted asylum a year later. In 1995, he issued a fatwa, saying it was justified to both kill Muslims who renounce their faith and kill their families. Four years later – and in the same year he was granted indefinite leave to remain in the UK – Qatada made a speech in which he effectively issued another fatwa advocating the killing of Jews, including children.
There followed a series of hearings in which Qatada was held in jail, then freed and then returned to jail.
Sir Keir’s involvement in the case came at a time, in June 2008, when Qatada was in jail, but he was subsequently released just a week after the hearing. Sir Keir does not appear to have played a role in securing Qatada’s release.
A few months later, in November 2008, Sir Keir left private practice to take up the post of director of public prosecutions, and was successful in securing convictions against a number of terrorists.
Senior Conservative MPs have questioned Sir Keir’s actions in representing notorious criminals and terror suspects. Supporters point out that under the cab rank rule, barristers must take jobs as they are offered unless under certain circumstances, such as being too busy.
An analysis of cases in the public domain suggests Sir Keir represented – at some stage or other in proceedings – at least 18 Islamist terror suspects. In many of the cases, the suspects were placed under control orders and as a consequence not identified under the anonymity laws then in place.
‘Simply desperate attacks’
Sir Keir’s spokesman has told The Telegraph: “Keir Starmer was the country’s most senior prosecutor, serving under Labour and Tory governments. During this time, he oversaw the first-ever prosecution of al-Qaeda terrorists, the jailing of the airline liquid bomb plotters and racist murderers of Stephen Lawrence. With his leadership, charge and conviction rates for sexual offences rose, victims were better supported, and the Crown Prosecution Service was positively reformed.
“Of course, as a lawyer he has had to represent people whose views he doesn’t agree with – that’s what the job of a lawyer involves. These are simply desperate attacks from a Tory party that has given up on running the country.”
