Zambia Extradites Militant Suspect to Britain

Zambia extradited a suspected Islamic militant to Britain on Sunday, and he was immediately arrested on a U.S. warrant accusing him of conspiring to organize a training camp in Oregon to prepare fighters for Afghanistan, police said.

Haroon Rashid Aswat, a British citizen of Indian descent, was arrested as British prosecutors said they would consider treason charges against any Islamic extremist who expresses support for terrorism.

The U.S. warrant accuses Aswat of conspiring with others between October 1999 and April 2000 to create a camp in Bly, Ore., aimed at training and equipping individuals to “fight jihad in Afghanistan,” police said in a statement.

Aswat, 30, had been detained since July 20 in Zambia, where he was questioned about 20 phone calls reportedly made on his South African cellphone to some of the bombers in the July 7 transit attacks in London that killed 52 people as well as the four bombers.

He was deported Sunday to Britain, said Peter Mumba, Zambian home affairs secretary.

Aswat is one of two associates of the Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al Masri who are referred to but not named or charged in a 2002 indictment issued by a federal grand jury in Seattle against Earnest James Ujaama, a Muslim convert from the area, officials have said. The other is a Lebanese-born Swede.

Under U.S. law, the United States has 60 days to secure an indictment against Aswat, now that he has been arrested on a provisional warrant.

Meanwhile, British Atty. Gen. Peter Goldsmith’s office said the Crown Prosecution Service’s head of anti-terrorism would meet with senior Metropolitan Police officers to discuss possible charges against three prominent clerics as part of a crackdown on those the government believes are inciting terrorism.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, Abu Izzadeen and Abu Uzair have appeared on British television in recent days, and a spokeswoman for Goldsmith’s office said prosecutors and police would look at remarks made by the three clerics and consider whether they could be charged with treason, incitement to treason, solicitation of murder or incitement to withhold information known to be of use to police.

After the July 7 bombings, Mohammed reportedly said that he would not inform police if he knew Muslims were planning another attack and that he supported insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In another development Sunday, British police charged two suspects in the failed July 21 attacks on the London transport system. Ibrahim Muktar Said, 27, who is accused of trying to detonate a bomb on a bus in east London, and Ramzi Mohammed, suspected of attempting the Oval underground train bombing, were arrested in raids in west London on July 29, police said.

All three July 21 bombing suspects in British police custody have now been charged. A fourth, known both as Hussain Osman and Hamdi Isaac, was arrested in Rome and is being held there on international terrorism charges.

The three face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, making or possessing an explosive substance with intent to endanger life or cause serious injury and conspiracy to use explosives.