Insanity rules the day.

LONDON – The British government on Wednesday lost the latest round of its legal battle to deport radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada, whom it calls a security risk and may have provided spiritual inspiration to 9/11 hijackers.

The ruling comes at a bad time for Prime Minister David Cameron and Home Secretary (interior minister) Theresa May, who in the past week have promised to get tough on immigration and ramp up efforts to deport foreigners in Britain illegally.

Qatada, once described by a Spanish judge as “Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe”, has been in and out of jail since first being arrested in 2001 and is wanted in his native Jordan where he was convicted of terrorism charges in 1999.

His sermons were found in a Hamburg flat used by some of those involved in the 9/11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

Attempts to extradite him have been hampered by concerns evidence to be used in an expected retrial in Jordan may have been obtained through torture, making his deportation illegal under European law.

May’s legal team have argued he is a “truly dangerous” individual who has escaped expulsion only through errors of law, and appealed a decision by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) in November blocking his deportation.

But at the Court of Appeal, three judges unanimously rejected the government’s argument.