Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Telegraph.co.uk

20/06/2008

Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza lost his High Court battle today against extradition to the United States where he faces a potential jail sentence of 100 years

The decision means the hook-handed fanatic can be sent across the Atlantic to face terror charges and is likely to spend the rest of his natural life locked up for 23 hours a day in a “super-maximum” security jail in Colorado.

Two High Court judges sitting in London ruled that the decision to extradite Hamza was “unassailable” but they also gave his lawyers 14 days to apply for leave to make a last ditch appeal to the House of Lords, the highest court in the land.

Ultimately, he could delay the move further by taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Hamza was the first person to be arrested under a new, streamlined Anglo-American extradition treaty in 2004.

Four years later he has still not been successfully extradited but the latest ruling brought that much closer.

The latest failed four-day appeal at the High Court added another estimated £100,000 to an already spiralling legal bill for taxpayers.

Hamza, 50, from west London, who is fitted with hooks on both his partially-amputated arms, is currently in Belmarsh prison in London serving a seven-year jail term imposed by a British court for stirring up racial hatred and inciting his followers to murder non-believers.

US authorities want him to stand trial there on up to 11 terrorism charges including sending money and recruits to assist al-Qa’eda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

They allege that Hamza was involved in a global conspiracy to wage jihad against the US and other western countries.

Among the most serious accusations is one that he was involved in the kidnap by Islamic radicals of 16 tourists in the Yemen in 1998. Four hostages, including three Britons, died in a rescue attempt. Hamza allegedly bought the kidnappers a satellite phone and gave them advice and assistance.

US authorities also claim that he tried to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon between 1999 and 2000.

At the High Court in London Sir Igor Judge and Mr Justice Sullivan dismissed his appeal against extradition.

Hamza’s lawyers had argued that extradition is unlawful because evidence gained from others by torture would be used against him.

That would violate Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights which guarantees the right to a fair trial, they said.

They also contended that it would be “unjust and oppressive” to extradite Hamza because so many years had passed since the alleged offences.

London’s City of Westminster Magistrates Court had previously ruled he could be extradited and in February this year Home Secretary Jacqui Smith gave her approval.

The July 7 London bombers were among those inspired by Hamza’s sermons and the would-be bombers of July 21 were regular worshippers at Finsbury Park mosque in north London where he was formerly the imam.

In 2003 he was dismissed from his position there after making inflammatory speeches.

Hamza, who was born Mostafa Kamel Mostafa in Alexandria, Egypt, worked as a nightclub bouncer in London before marrying a British woman, fathering seven children and becoming a radical preacher. He lost both his hands and one eye in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

He was arrested on the US charges in May 2004 but subsequently charged by British prosecutors and tried for incitement to murder at the Old Bailey where he was jailed for seven years.

Hamza followed the appeal proceedings through a video link from Belmarsh where he is said to be in poor health with diabetes and raised blood pressure.

In the US he faces life locked up in a 48 sq ft by 80 sq ft cell which he claims is also a breach of his human rights.