Bail for Abu Qatada

The BBC are reporting that Abu Qatada has been released from prison. I know there's a strain on prisons but come on, is this a guy who should be getting out on bail?:

Abu Qatada, 47, was freed from Long Lartin Prison, in Worcestershire, on Tuesday after winning his fight against deportation to Jordan.

The Palestinian-Jordanian preacher will be subjected to a 22-hour home curfew and tight restrictions on his liberty.

Abu Qatada has been described as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe.

(...)

Abu Qatada was once described by a judge as a "truly dangerous individual at the centre of al-Qaeda's activities in the UK".

He is widely assumed to have had a huge radicalising influence on men who went on to commit acts of violence such as Richard Reid, the convicted shoe bomber, Mohammed Atta, the 9/11 ringleader and Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the former al-Qaeda leader in Iraq.

But don't fret because his terrorist friends won't be allowed to visit him:

Police have special permission to enter and search his home, while he is banned from having guests other than family and solicitors without the home secretary's permission.

Among the people he is banned from meeting in London is al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Others include bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri and Rachid Ramda, who has been convicted in France of masterminding a series of bombings in 1995.

Also named is hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri.

Great. Nice work, guys. At least Jacqui Smith is taking up the case (the shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve weighed in too):

Ms Smith said she was "disappointed" at the decision to grant him bail.

(...)

Ms Smith said: "I am appealing to the House of Lords to reverse the decision that it is not safe to deport [Abu] Qatada and the other Jordanian cases.

"The government's priority is to protect public safety and national security and we will take all steps necessary to do so."

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "This man should be deported if possible. His presence is offensive.

"Failing deportation, he should be prosecuted.

"This is why, for example, we have called on the government to allow the use of intercept evidence - so they have every weapon possible to prosecute these individuals."

I agree, deport him or prosecute him. I don't care if Bin Laden and his boys aren't allowed to go around for tea and scones, this is not someone who should be breathing free air.