Abu Qatada

David Winnick Excerpts

Tuesday 17th April 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mrs May]

I am clear that we need to make some reforms. We all value human rights and we want to ensure that we uphold them, but we need to ensure that we have legal structures that will enable us to do so in a way that is proper and appropriate. That is why it is entirely right that the Government have been looking, in conjunction with others, at how the European Court works.

[Mr David Winnick (Walsall North) (Lab)]

Observing the rule of law is even more important when we are dealing with an individual like this, but I want to ask the Home Secretary the same question as I have asked on previous occasions. This individual has been here for a very long time; he came here in the early 1990s. If there is evidence against him, why cannot he be charged with any crimes that he is alleged to have committed? If there is evidence against him—and there might well be—it is puzzling that he is not being tried in the United Kingdom.

[Mrs May]

The Government have looked at every aspect of the case of Abu Qatada, as I assume the previous Government did. Of course, decisions on whether to prosecute are a matter not for the Government but for others.