LONDON: Britain yesterday prepared to hand over radical Muslim preacher Abu Hamza to the United States on terrorism charges after the European Court of Human Rights rejected his final appeal.
The Strasbourg-based court on Monday upheld an April 10 ruling against the Egyptian-born terror suspect and four others which had approved their extradition by London, ending a long legal battle.
Hamza and the other suspects had argued that they would face degrading treatment because they would be sent to the notorious ADX supermax prison in Florence, Colorado and would face possible multiple life sentences.
But the Grand Chamber of the European court unanimously decided there would be “no violation” of the European Convention of Human Rights if they were sent to the United States.
US Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said the United States was “pleased” by the decision and vowed to work with Britain to extradite the men.
The British government also welcomed the decision but said an extradition would not take place immediately. A government source said it was “likely to be within weeks rather than days - at least a couple of weeks for arrangements to be put in place”.
The BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner revealed that the queen had quizzed the previous government before Hamza’s initial arrest in 2004 as to why he was still a free man.
A government source said it was “likely to be within weeks rather than days - at least a couple of weeks for arrangements to be put in place”. Hamza, the former imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, is wanted in the United States on charges including setting up an Al-Qaeda-style training camp for militants in the northwestern US state of Oregon.AFP
