Abu Hamza loses extradition appeal in UK

Britain’s High Court has ruled that Abu Hamza al-Masri, who is accused of helping set up a “terrorist” training camp in the US state of Oregon, can be extradited to the US where he is wanted to face charges.Judges Duncan Ouseley and John Thomas handed down the judgment on Friday in the case of al-Masri along with four other defendents who are accused of terrorist activities.Al-Masri, along with Babar Ahmad, Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled Al Fawaaz, will be now extradited to the USA as soon as possible.Their appeal came after the European Court of Human Rights backed successive UK courts in ruling for extradition.The Home Office has said it wants to deport them “as quickly as possible”. Judges Thomas and Ousley said in their ruling there was an “overwhelming public interest in the functioning of the extradition system” and that there was “no appeal from our decision”.Al Jazeera’s Peter Sharp reporting from London, says: “Abu Hamza has been in jail since 2004, he has already been charged by the British courts, now the Americans have charges against him.”Ahmad, a computer expert from South London, has been held in a UK prison without trial for eight years after being accused of raising funds for terrorism with his co-accused, Ahsan, through a website.last minute haltFahad Ansari, a human rights lawyer with Free Babar Ahmad Campaign told Al Jazeera he is disappointed with the High Court ruling: “In the past year, two parliamentary committees, numerous senior politicians from all parties, the Mayor of London, and 150,000 ordinary members of the British public have called for Babar Ahmad to be tried in the UK. This decision flies in the face of that and questions need to be asked as to how and why members of the judiciary have ignored both the public interest in Babar Ahmad being prosecuted in the UK.”