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"Leaving: Abu Qatada is being flown to Jordan tonight (Picture: PA)\nThe eight-year battle to deport radical preacher Abu Qatada to his homeland of Jordan is due to end tonight when he is flown out of the UK from an RAF base in London.\nThe controversial cleric, whose efforts to avoid deportation are estimated to have cost the British taxpayer £1.7million, will be transported on a military flight from RAF Northolt early tomorrow morning, at around 2am.\nQatada, whose family &#8211; a wife and five children &#8211; are still expected to remain in Britain, is set to face a retrial on terror charges, having been convicted in his absence in 1999.\nHe has been at south London’s Belmarsh Prison since March after breaching bail conditions.\nEarlier this week, an anonymous source in Jordan revealed his long-awaited exit from the UK would come this weekend.\n‘Abu Qatada is expected to leave Britain in the early hours of Sunday and should arrive in the morning in Jordan on the same day,’ they said.\nThe move has only come about after the UK and Jordan agreed a treaty that ensured Qatada, whose real name is Omar Othman, would not be subject to evidence at his trial that has been obtained through torture.\nIn Jordan, he will be held at a maximum security prison near the capital Amman."
<https://metro.co.uk/2013/07/06/abu-qatada-to-be-deported-from-united-kingdom-to-jordan-within-hours-3871448/>