Abu Hamza arrives in U.S. to face terrorism charges.(AA). Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza and two other terror suspects extradited from Britain have arrived in the United States, U.S. media reported on Sunday, citing unnamed U.S. officials. The whereabouts of two other suspects also extradited from Britain, who traveled on a separate plane, were not immediately known.
Abu Hamza failed on Friday in a last-ditch legal attempt to avoid extradition from Britain to the United States, where he faces terrorism charges. Judges at the High Court in London dismissed his request for more medical tests that his lawyers said would prove he was unfit to be extradited, clearing the way for a handover. The decision caps a long legal battle, which saw the cleric launch a fresh appeal in Britain last week after the European Court of Human Rights rejected his earlier bid to avoid being sent to the United States. Abu Hamza has been indicted in the United States on charges including setting up an al-Qaeda-style training camp for militants in the state of Oregon and involvement in the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998. He is expected to appear before a judge in New Haven, Connecticut, later Saturday.
Abu Hamza rose to prominence in the 1990s when he gave fiery sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, but has been in prison in Britain for eight years after being convicted of inciting hatred. The other suspects are Khaled Al-Fawwaz, Syed Tahla Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Babar Ahmad. Ahmad and Ahsan, both British nationals who are described as computer experts, are accused of operating websites supporting Chechen and Afghan insurgents. Fawwaz and Bary were both indicted by the U.S. for alleged involvement in the bombing of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998 which killed hundreds. They also allegedly ran al-Qaeda's media office in London in the 1990s.Read the full story here.
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