Qatada arrested following publication of extremist material (From Harrow Times)

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne said police investigating if Abu Qatada contributed to extremist online articles

4:49pm Friday 22nd March 2013 in News By Jaber Mohamed

A senior police officer has said the radical cleric Abu Qatada was recently re-arrested following a link to an investigation into extremist internet material.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne said counter-terrorism officers were looking into a range of online publications in multiple languages which Mr Qatada may be involved with.

As part of his strict bail conditions the 52-year-old was not allowed to communicate with associates or allow mobile phones to be switched on at his home in Harrow Borough.

However, on March 9 police raided his residence and sent him to Belmarsh prison for breaching these terms.

Mr Osborne said the current investigation was into whether the articles published were written by Mr Qatada.

He said: "When we searched his house before his arrest, that was a police search in relation to investigating some publications, to see if that was anything that reached a criminal threshold.

"There is an awful lot of media that needs to be looked through."

The cleric, once described as Osama Bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, is faces criminal charges in Jordan for allegedly conspiring to cause explosions at Western and Israeli targets before the year 2000.

In November last year judges rejected an application to get him deported ruled there was a danger that evidence obtained by torture could be used against him if he was extradited.

The Home Secretary Theresa May has started a new bid to get him deported and descried the Harrow resident as "a dangerous man, a suspected terrorist, who is accused of serious crime in his home country of Jordan".

She is currently awaiting the outcome of the appeal.