Britain Pledges Swift Extradition

British Home Secretary David Blunkett on Friday promised a speeded-up extradition process for radical cleric Abu Hamza al Masri, accused in a U.S. indictment of aiding terrorist plots in the United States and Yemen.

Abu Hamza’s case was being viewed here as a test of the effectiveness of a new extradition treaty with the United States, enacted after the Sept. 11 attacks, that was designed to streamline the transfer of suspects in the war on terrorism.

Scotland Yard police arrested Abu Hamza on Thursday, in response to a U.S. request, on charges that he sought to create a terrorist training base in Oregon in 1999; abetted a hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998 that ended in the deaths of three Britons and an Australian; and had helped recruit at least one man to an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan.

Abu Hamza’s lawyer has promised a strong fight against extradition, and supporters of the cleric argued that he should not be turned over to the Americans when the British could not build a case against him.

“The shameful and heavy-handed arrest of Sheik Abu Hamza has proven unequivocally that any Muslim who speaks out against idolatry, corruption, oppression, Zionism and Christian fanaticism is subject to arrest,” an unidentified spokesman said Friday outside the Finsbury Park mosque in north London where Abu Hamza once preached.

Referring to Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, who announced the charges Thursday in New York, the speaker said: “Can Sheik Abu Hamza or any Muslim expect a fair trial from such a man?”

About 70 British Muslims attended a prayer service outside the mosque, watched over by a larger group of police and journalists. They said they would stage a protest march to the U.S. Embassy in London next Friday.

Until now, suspected terrorists wanted by Washington have been able to draw out for several years requests for extradition by the United States.

“I want to see if we can get the extradition request speeded through,” said Blunkett, speaking on BBC Radio.

He defended the decision to let the United States take the lead in prosecuting Abu Hamza, even though the cleric was living in Britain at the time of the offenses and had never been on U.S. soil.

Blunkett said British investigators had been monitoring Abu Hamza for years and had not obtained evidence that could be used in courts here. He said American investigators had managed to accumulate evidence that the British investigators had not obtained.

That evidence is believed to include intercepted satellite telephone conversations between the cleric and the hostage-takers in Yemen and the testimony of former associates of Abu Hamza who are in U.S. custody.

“Had we the evidence in this country of a crime here, then of course the police and the attorney general would have taken action,” Blunkett said, noting that British courts limit the use of intercepted phone conversations as evidence.

Several previous U.S. extradition requests in terrorism cases are languishing in the courts here, as lawyers for the accused take advantage of appeal opportunities. Until the new treaty was enacted, a British court had to consider whether there was a prima facie case against the defendant before approving an extradition. Now the standard has been simplified, and U.S. officials merely have to spell out the accusations against the suspect rather than having to prove that they are true.

Britain’s Telegraph newspaper reported Friday that nine other terrorism extradition requests were before the courts. They include three alleged Al Qaeda members suspected of involvement in the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed at least 224 people.

Another longtime suspect, Abu Doha, has been sought by the U.S. since 2001 for allegedly conspiring to blow up Los Angeles International Airport at the turn of the millennium.

The treaty, which took effect in January, is not retroactive to the nine previous cases but will apply to Abu Hamza.

It sets a strict timetable for hearings and appeals, meaning that Abu Hamza’s case, including all appeals, should be wrapped up within a year, British officials say. However, the law bans transfer of prisoners to countries where they could receive the death penalty.

Blunkett, who has sought since last year to have the Egyptian-born Abu Hamza stripped of his British citizenship, said that before permitting the extradition to proceed, he would need written confirmation from the U.S. government that the cleric would not be executed.

The home secretary said he had already been assured that the death penalty would not be imposed. However, Ashcroft told reporters Thursday that the crimes of which Abu Hamza was accused carried penalties that included the death sentence.