British High Court OKs Extradition

After three years of legal delays, Britain’s highest court ruled Monday that an alleged Al Qaeda leader can be extradited to the United States on charges he helped plan the lethal 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies. But U.S. officials here said Khalid Fawwaz can file more appeals in Europe that could delay any U.S. trial for months or years.

The Law Lords, Britain’s equivalent of the Supreme Court, became the third court here to order the extradition of Fawwaz and two others, Ibrahim Eidarous and Adel Abdelbari. The three were indicted in federal court in New York for conspiracy to commit murder in the nearly simultaneous bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Among the evidence prosecutors have presented in the case is a fax sent to London by an Al Qaeda official a few hours before the bombings, explaining how the terrorist network should claim responsibility after the bombs went off. The fax was addressed to Fawwaz; prosecutors say the fingerprints of both Eidarous and Abdelbari were found on the document.

The three men have taken advantage of Britain’s complex extradition laws to remain in the country. Even now, having lost in Britain’s final appellate court, they have several other possible legal routes to explore. “The process is nowhere near over,” complained a U.S. official in London.

Because the Law Lords have now ruled that there is no legal bar to extradition, Britain’s home secretary, David Blunkett, will draft a formal extradition order. But the three defendants can go back to court and challenge that order.

When the British procedures are completed, the three could challenge extradition at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. That would probably add another year or so to the process.

U.S. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft was in London last week to discuss extradition problems and reportedly complained about long delays in the British system. With at least two suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks now in jail here pending extradition, Ashcroft asked the British to deal with “appropriate dispatch.”

Another obstacle to extradition is the U.S. death penalty, which could apply in the conspiracy and murder charges against Fawwaz and the other men. Because members of the European Union consider capital punishment a violation of human rights, the United States will have to agree in writing not to execute the suspects, even if they are found guilty of the embassy bombings, which killed more than 200 people and injured 4,000.