A BRITISH resident freed from Guantanamo Bay has been accused by the Americans of having direct links to a radical preacher described as Al-Qaeda’s “spiritual ambassador” in Europe.

Omar Deghayes, 38, is alleged to have been “associated” with Abu Qatada and to have travelled to Afghanistan in 1999 after attending prayer meetings in London hosted by the cleric.

Libyan-born Deghayes and Qatada “each possessed the other’s contact information”, according to declassified Pentagon files, and are thought to have met at weekly prayers held at a community centre close to Regent’s Park mosque.

The new claim explains in part why the Spanish government is seeking the extradition of Deghayes and Jamil el-Banna, another British resident with links to Qatada.

The two men were transferred to Britain earlier this month after being detained without charge at Guantanamo Bay for up to six years.

A third British resident, Abdennour Sameur, was freed and released without charge by police after returning to the UK.

Deghayes, who has been described by the US as “a jihadi veteran” of the Bosnian war, and Jordanian-born el-Banna, 45, are due to appear at fast-track extradition hearings in London next week.

Spain alleges the two men were members of an Al-Qaeda-inspired cell in Madrid that helped to send recruits to terrorist training camps in Afghanistan. Both men, who have been granted bail, deny the claim.

This weekend Deghayes’s lawyer, Clive Stafford Smith, described the Pentagon’s claims as “absolute drivel”. “The Americans are just smearing people,” he said. “They had an agreement with the British government not to do this and they are violating it because the [US] military cannot accept that they made a mistake.”

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