Abu Hamza extradition postponed for hearing

Last Modified: 04 Aug 2008
By: Simon Israel

Last ditch efforts by the radical Islamist cleric Abu Hamza to prevent extradition to the United States on terror charges have received a boost.

Channel 4 News has learnt the European court of human rights in Strasbourg has ordered the British government to postpone extradition pending a hearing on whether incarceration in America's most secure jail, the Supermax ADX Florence in Colorado, amounts to a breach of the preacher's human rights.

The prison houses 38 convicted international terrorists.

Papers filed by Hamza's lawyers claim they are kept in conditions which amount to inhuman or degrading treatment: they live in boxes, there is only two hours exercise per week, there are no family visits and every correspondence is intercepted.

Last month the 48-year-old cleric was refused leave to appeal to the Law Lords, the highest court in England and Wales by the most senior judge in the land.

The Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has already approved Hamza's extradition but judges in Strasbourg will now hear what amounts to his final appeal.

A Home Office spokesperson said: "The decision is a matter for the European Court. We shall seek to have his case expedited so it is heard as soon as possible."

Hamza is currently serving seven years in Britain for soliciting murder and stirring up racial hatred.

The former imam at London's Finsbury Park Mosque is accused in the United States of trying to set up an al-Qaida training camp in Oregon.

He faces 11 charges in total, including sending cash and recruits to al-Qaida and the Taliban. Another relates to the kidnap of 16 tourists in the Yemen in 1998. Four hostages, including three Brits, died in a rescue bid.