PARIS, MAY 9 (AP/UNB) - A panel of the high chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has refused an appeal by the radical Islamist cleric Abu Qatada in a case of a British deportation order.

A five-member panel of the Grand Chamber in the Strasbourg-based court said Wednesday that a January ruling by another court chamber is now final.

Abu Qatada - whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman - is an extremist Muslim preacher from Jordan who has been described in both Spanish and British courts as a leading al-Qaida figure in Europe.