Former Iraq hostage Norman Kember has confirmed he has helped fund bail for Muslim cleric Abu Qatada.

Mr Kember, 77, said he was supporting the man described as Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe "because he helped me".

While Mr Kember was being held by a radical group in Iraq, Qatada released a video calling for his release.

An immigration tribunal has granted bail to Qatada who was being held ahead of deportation to Jordan. He will be subject to a 22-hour curfew when he is released.

Mr Kember said he didn't know if Qatada was safe to walk the streets but said the Government needed to produce evidence of his guilt before it could jail him.

He said Islam was demonised by the West and said he hoped Qatada's release would encourage a conversation with Muslims.

"I always think we are in danger of demonising Islam and I think we have to have a more open discussion about these things. The Government obviously doesn't," he said.

"I don't know, perhaps he should be in prison but if there's clear evidence why doesn't the Government produce it.

"I don't know that he is safe to walk the streets. I think people need to talk to him more and understand what his position is and why he takes it.

"He feels that the West is in opposition to Islam and that Islam has a right to defend itself.

"I want them to do it via peaceful means obviously but I understand why some people get annoyed at what happened in Iraq."

He said he wasn't endorsing Qatada's positions but said he felt talking to Muslims might encourage young people not to turn to violence.

He added: "I think his position is rather more extreme than that."

"I expect to be criticised - I have been before and it doesn't surprise me."

"If you want to keep him in jail you have to have good reasons for doing it otherwise al-Qaeda have you - if you don't follow your process of justice."

He said he hadn't spoken to Qatada personally but had been contacted by his solicitors. He refused to state how much he had put up.

Mr Kember was kidnapped in Baghdad by the Swords of Truth Brigade, in November 2005 with Canadians Harmeet Singh Sooden and James Loney, and American Tom Fox, who was later murdered.

The following month Qatada made a video appeal to the kidnappers asking for his release.

The recording, made inside Full Sutton jail, near York, was broadcast in the Middle East.

Kember and the two other surviving hostages were rescued in a daring raid led by British Special Forces in March 2006.

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