Gossip: Preacher sent out of UK

Abu Qatada has finally been deported from Britain after a 10-year legal battle that has cost taxpayers an estimated £2million.


The 53-year-old hate preacher left Belmarsh prison shortly after midnight on Sunday morning in a police convoy. He was taken to RAF Northholt, from where he was flown in a private jet to Jordan.

He is expected to land in the Middle Eastern country around 8am today.

The Government has been trying to deport Qatada to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999, for over eight years but had been prevented from doing so by the EU court of human rights.