Law Lords say Abu Qatada can be deported

The government has sought to counter rights groups' fears of torture by securing special agreements with the countries concerned that deportees will not be ill-treated.

All three men can take their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Qatada was once described by Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon as bin Laden's top operative in Europe, but he has denied belonging to al Qaeda.

The government says 18 videotapes of his sermons were found in an apartment in Germany used by three of the people who carried out al Qaeda's attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

The cleric was arrested by British authorities in 2002 under now defunct laws which allowed foreigners suspected of involvement in terrorism to be held without charge.

He was later freed on bail but was detained again in 2005.

Last April, Qatada defeated an attempt to deport him after Appeal Court judges ruled he would not face a fair trial in Jordan.

In June, he was freed from prison on bail, but was returned to custody in December after being deemed to have breached strict conditions, where he has remained. Authorities suspected he was planning to flee the country.

They said he has declared a wish to lawfully leave Britain for any state other than Jordan that would take him, and that he was seeking to live in the Palestinian territories where he was born.

(Reporting by Avril Ormsby; Editing by Steve Addison)