Extradition of British terror suspects to US halted

LONDON - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) Thursday stopped the extradition of four British terror suspects, including radical cleric Abu Hamza, to the US.

The court in Strausbourg, France, gave a similar decision in the case of other suspects Babar Ahmed, a British Muslim who is the country’s longest serving prisoner without charge since his arrest after an American extradition warrant in 2004, Haroon Aswat and Syed Ahsan.

Hamza, a former cleric of a London mosque is in a British prison and wanted by the US for allegedly trying to set up a training camp in Oregon.

Aswat, Ahsan and Ahmed are wanted for reasons ranging from alleged involvement with the training camp to raising funds for terrorist acts and supporting terrorist causes.

While Hamza, who lost both his hands in an explosion and is partially blind, is expected to serve only a brief spell in jail if extradited, the other three may get solitary confinement for life.

They had approached the court arguing the sentence was a kind of physical torture and thus a breach of their human rights.

In a statement from Strasbourg, the court said the applicants’ arguments about standing trial in the US were inadmissible, but said arguments over the length of the sentences that the men could face “raised serious questions”.

The British government must submit further arguments to the court by Sep 2 on why the extradition should be allowed.

British Home Secretary Theresa May said in a statement: “We note that the European Court of Human Rights has decided that all the applications are partly admissible. We await the court’s judgement on the case. In the meantime, these individuals will remain in custody.”

(Venkata Vemuri can be contacted at venkata.v@ians.in)