Abu Qatada, the extreme Islamist cleric freed on bail earlier this year, will appear before a special court this week after being arrested on suspicion of trying to flee the country.

The Palestinian radical, one of the most influential preachers in the global jihadi movement, could be returned to prison permanently if he is found to have breached his bail conditions.

Abu Qatada, 48, a father of five, was arrested in his London home at 7.30am on Saturday after allegations that he was plotting to escape Britain and seek refuge in the Middle East.

Britain wants to deport him to Jordan, where he has been convicted in his absence of terrorist offences and sentenced to life imprisonment.

His detention was authorised on Friday by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), the same court that will examine the claims against him on Wednesday.

It is not clear if Abu Qatada will be present or will appear via videolink from Belmarsh high-security prison where he is being held.

The release of Abu Qatada in June attracted widespread concern despite the imposition of stringent bail conditions, which included a 22-hour curfew.

The cleric has lived in Britain since 1993 and was reported in the late 1990s to have been a member of the ruling council of al-Qaeda. He is regarded by security agencies as the most influential and dangerous of the group of extremist preachers whose presence in London earned the city the nickname "Londonistan".

The teachings of the cleric, whose real name is Omar Othman, influenced some of the most violent jihadi groups in Algeria's bloody civil war, the Hamburg cell which plotted the September 11, 2001 attacks and the Madrid train bombers.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the fanatical leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, was a follower of Abu Qatada and the preacher's influence led to the Government allowing him to make a video appeal from prison for the life of the British hostage Norman Kember in 2005.

In 2001 Abu Qatada was arrested after a raid on his home uncovered £180,000 in a variety of currencies hidden in a bedroom.

Abu Qatada has never been charged with criminal offences here but repeated attempts have been made to detain him.

He went into hiding in 2001 before he was due to be arrested and evaded capture until the following October when he was jailed as a threat to national security.

In 2004 a SIAC judge ruled that Abu Qatada was "a truly dangerous individual" who was "heavily involved, indeed was at the centre in the United Kingdom of terrorist activities associated with al-Qaeda".

Despite that finding he was released under a control order and later rearrested pending attempts to deport him.

Britain signed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan to enable his deportation but the Appeal Court blocked the move in April when it ruled that it would be a breach of Abu Qatada's human rights to send him to a country where the evidence against him might have been obtained through torture.

The Home Office is appealing the case to the House of Lords but, in the meantime, the courts ruled that it would be unlawful to detain him indefinitely if there was no realistic prospect of deportation.

After lengthy negotiations Abu Qatada was set free under some of the toughest bail terms ever set in Britain.

The conditions forbid him from attending any mosque, do not allow him to buy a telephone or computer and bar him from associating with a list of named individuals, including Osama bin Laden.

The bail order also includes the condition that Abu Qatada "shall not apply for or have in his possession or available for his use any passport, identity card, travel documents or travel ticket which would enable him to travel outside the United Kingdom".

The solicitor for Abu Qatada refused to comment on the case, as did the Home Office and Scotland Yard.

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