A suspected terrorist fighting deportation from Britain claims that evidence against him was extracted through torture, an immigration court was told today.

Solicitors representing Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric once described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe, alleged that the Home Office was relying on testimony from a man who had been tortured by the US in Afghanistan.

Mr Qatada's defence team also told the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac), in Central London, that their client will be tortured if he is sent back to his native Jordan where he was, in his absence, convicted of terror attacks in 1998.

The case is the first major test of the Government's move to use a diplomatic agreement - known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) - to guarantee the welfare of suspects deported to countries with poor human rights records.

Mr Qatada's representatives claim that the MOU does not offer sufficient protection and that returning him to Jordan would breach the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Government has argued that the presence of Qatada, also known as Omar Mohammed Othman, is not conducive to the public good. A previous Siac ruling in 2004 concluded that he was a "truly dangerous individual" who was at the centre of al-Qaeda's UK fundraising and operations.

At today's hearing, Edward Fitzgerald, QC, told Siac: "The appellant strongly suspects that the national security case against him is based on material obtained as a result of torture."

Mr Fitzgerald said that Jamil el-Banna, who was later transferred to Guantanamo detention centre, was "repeatedly subjected to torture and ill-treatment by the US authorities with a view to forcing him to provide details against the appellant".

Ian Burnett, QC, acting for John Reid, the Home Secretary, rebuffed these arguments and said that the national security case against Mr Qatada was "strong indeed".

He said that Mr Qatada had provided spiritual advice and religious legitimacy for overseas terrorist activity including issuing fatwas encouraging terrorism, supporting terrorism on British soil, fundraising for terrorism and recruiting extremists.

He said the groups and networks involved overseas included al-Qaeda, the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), the Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC), and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Mr Qatada was recognised as a refugee in June 1994 and granted leave to remain in Britain until June 1998. Critics of British intelligence services claim that Islamist militants were, for many years, allowed relative freedom on the understanding Britain would not be attacked.

He applied for indefinite leave to remain in May 1998 but before his application had been decided he was arrested under new laws, passed two months after September 11, 2001, allowing terror suspects to be detained without trial.

He was held in Belmarsh prison in south-east London until March last year when the laws were ruled unconstitutional. He was released from detention under a control order designed to limit his movements and contact with other people.

Mr Burnett said that Mr Qatada had breached the terms of the order by associating with known Islamic extremists. He also said that his attitudes towards the UK had hardened following his incarceration.

He dismissed the claim that Jordan would ignore the guarantees provided in the MOU: "Given the level of personal, political and diplomatic commitment which has been made in the negotiations to secure the MOU... it would be extraordinary if Jordan were to fail to comply with the promises which it has given to the UK."

The Government lawyer added that it was reported in January 2002 that numerous videos of Mr Qatada’s sermons were found in a flat in Hamburg, Germany, which was used by Mohammed Atta, one of the September 11 hijackers.

Mr Burnett said: "The appellant has links with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, now assessed to be part of the al-Qaeda network, through Ayman al-Zawahiri, its sometime leader who then became, in effect, Osama Bin Laden’s number two, whom the appellant is reported to have known whilst in Afghanistan."

He said that Mr Qatada was also a "close associate" of the Algerian Islamic extremist Abu Doha, whose followers based in Frankfurt plotted to bomb the Christmas market in Strasbourg.

He added: "The appellant was a spiritual leader to the Al-Tawhid movement, whose leader was Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, who has gone on to international fame as a result of his murderous activities in Iraq."

Mr Qatada has always denied claims that he is al-Qaeda’s European ambassador, and insisted he has never met Osama bin Laden.

In December he made a unique televised appeal from behind bars for the release of Norman Kember, 74, a British peace activists captured and subsequently released in Baghdad.

The hearing continues.

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