Abu Qatada due to be deported to stand trial in Jordan

6 July 2013 Last updated at 17:07 GMT Radical cleric Abu Qatada is expected to be deported to Jordan overnight to stand trial on terrorism charges. He is due to board a military plane in the UK, which will take him back to his home country in the early hours. His deportation was approved after the UK and Jordan signed a treaty agreeing that evidence obtained through torture would not be used against him. The legal battle to deport Abu Qatada has lasted almost 10 years and has cost the UK more than £1.7m ($2.5m). The 53-year-old cleric is expected to be driven out of London's Belmarsh Prison on Saturday evening and taken to a waiting plane at RAF Northolt, in west London. The BBC understands that he will be accompanied on the flight by six people from Jordan, comprising three security officials, a psychologist, a medical examiner and his Jordanian lawyer. He has not returned to Jordan since he fled to the UK 20 years ago. Eleventh hour The Palestinian-Jordanian, whose real name is Omar Othman, lost his appeal against deportation at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) in February 2007. But he then appealed to higher courts on the grounds that evidence extracted through torture would be used against him in Jordan, where he faces a retrial for plotting bomb attacks. That legal battle continued until May this year, when the cleric accepted that his right to a fair trial there was protected by the new treaty between Jordan and the UK. He agreed to drop his legal challenge, paving the way for his deportation. BBC news correspondent Jon Brain said: "He still has the option to seek a judicial review. Even at this 11th hour, he could announce that he's going to make another appeal and extend this process still further. "But it does appear that he's accepted the latest developments, and should be on his way to Jordan in the early hours of the morning." The final administrative procedures needed to ratify the treaty - which included an exchange of diplomatic letters between the UK and Jordan and the publication of the treaty in the Jordanian government's Official Gazette - have now been completed. Abu Qatada has been held at Belmarsh after breaching a bail condition in March which restricted his use of mobile phones and other communication devices.