Five terrorist suspects including radical preacher Abu Hamza can be extradited from the UK to America for trial, human rights judges ruled today.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg rejected the men’s claims that they could face prison conditions and jail terms which would expose them to “torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” in breach of the European human rights code.
The five include radical Muslim preacher Abu Hamza, currently serving a seven-year sentence in Britain for soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred, and Babar Ahmad, a 36-year-old computer expert and alleged terrorism fundraiser who has been held in a UK prison without trial for nearly eight years.
Three others — Seyla Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled Al-Fawwaz — can also be extradited, while the case of a sixth man, Haroon Rashid Aswat, was adjourned today until a further hearing.
Today’s verdict declared that “detention conditions and length of sentences of five alleged terrorists would not amount to ill-treatment if they were extradited to the USA”.
The human rights judges emphasised that today’s ruling only becomes final after three months, if there has been no further appeal.
Meanwhile, the judges said, “the court decided to continue its indication to the United Kingdom Government that the applicants should not be extradited until this judgment became final or until the case was referred to the Grand Chamber(of the Human Rights court)”.