Hamza loses US extradition battle
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Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza has lost his High Court battle against extradition to the US where he faces terror-related charges.
Sir Igor Judge and Mr Justice Sullivan, sitting at the London court, ruled the decision to extradite was 'unassailable' and gave his lawyers 14 days to apply for leave to launch a final appeal to the House of Lords after dismissing his case.
Currently held at Belmarsh top security prison in southeast London, Egyptian-born Hamza, 49, who is fitted with hooks on both partially-amputated arms, could face 11 charges in the US.
They include sending money and recruits to assist the Taliban and al-Qaeda. He is also wanted for allegedly trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in Bly, Oregon.
Hamza is currently serving a seven-year jail term for inciting followers to murder non-believers
His lawyers have argued that extradition is unlawful because evidence gained by torture is being used against him, and that, if there is to be any further trial, it should take place in London.
They also contend that it would be 'unjust and oppressive' to extradite because of the passage of time, and it would be incompatible with his human rights.
London's City of Westminster Magistrates Court had previously ruled he could be extradited, and in February this year Home Secretary Jacqui Smith gave the final approval.
The July 7 London bombers were inspired by his sermons and the would-be bombers of July 21 were regular worshippers at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London where he was formerly the imam.
In 2003 he was dismissed from his position after making speeches supporting al-Qaeda and speaking out against the invasion of Iraq.
Listed at the High Court in London under his real name, Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, he was the first person to be arrested under the streamlined Anglo-American extradition treaty when police raided his home in May 2004.
The extradition process was put on hold when he stood trial in Britain and attempted to appeal against his UK convictions. A decision by the House of Lords to refuse him leave to make a further appeal against his convictions left the path clear for extradition proceedings.
Some of the most serious charges allege that he assisted a gang of kidnappers in Yemen who abducted a party of Western tourists in 1998.
Hamza allegedly bought the kidnappers a satellite phone and gave them advice and assistance during the kidnap, in which four people, including three Britons, were shot dead.
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