Al-Qaida warns UK against handling over cleric to Jordan

DUBAI - Al-Qaida has warned Britain against handing over a radical Islamic cleric to Jordan after his release from prison, saying such a move will open the "door of evil" for the British government and its people, according to an Islamist website.

Britain freed Abu Qatada from prison in February to live under virtual house arrest after a court ruled that his detention without trial was unlawful.

"It has come to our attention that the British government intends to hand over the honorable Sheikh Abu Qatada al-Filistini to the agent Jordanian government, claiming it had secured assurances and covenants not to torture him," the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist site late on Monday.

"Based on all that, we in Qaedat al-Jihad (al-Qaida) place the responsibility on the British government of handing over Sheikh Abu Qatada to the Jordanian government, and let it be known that by doing so, under any pretext, it will open the door of evil for it and its citizens, which it can do without."