Italian Court OKs Extradition of British Bombing Suspect

An Italian court Wednesday approved the extradition to Britain of a suspect in the failed July 21 bombings of London’s transit system who was captured in Rome last month hiding out in his brother’s apartment.

The three-judge panel delayed the extradition by 35 days to give Italian investigators time to continue interrogating Hamdi Issac and to give the Ethiopian-born Briton time to appeal.

Still, the decision was seen as a boost to British efforts to deepen their investigation into the July 7 bombers and the July 21 would-be bombers whose attacks forced Britons to confront Islamic extremism in their midst.

Paolo Iorio, an Italian lawyer representing the British government in its petition for Issac’s extradition, emerged Wednesday from the court building in Rome and said he was “absolutely satisfied” with the decision.

Issac, 27, who used the name Hussain Osman when posing as a Somali refugee to gain British citizenship, vowed to fight his extradition. He said he would prefer to remain in Italy, to which he immigrated around 1989. To that end, he has been cooperative with Italian interrogators and has portrayed his failed attack as an attempt to attract attention but not kill.

His court-appointed Italian attorney, Antonietta Sonnessa, said her client had told his interrogators that his “bomb” was made of flour and other common household products designed merely to produce noise. British authorities dismissed the claims and said the backpack Issac allegedly carried into the Shepherd’s Bush subway station would have caused damage if it had detonated properly because it contained explosives.

In court Wednesday, Sonnessa argued that extradition should be denied so that Issac could stand trial before Italian justice for crimes committed in Italy, including the use of false documents.

The judges, who deliberated for nearly two hours, apparently decided that the charges Issac faced in London were sufficiently more serious to warrant his transfer.

Italian investigators are interested in determining whether the support network that helped hide Issac when he fled from London to Rome last month has the potential for carrying out terrorist attacks.

So far, investigators believe the network consists mostly of his family and friends in the Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrant community and are not part of a wider criminal conspiracy. Carlo de Stefano, a senior anti-terrorism police official, said Issac’s contacts were “an impromptu group” and he did not appear to be plotting attacks in Italy.

Issac was captured July 29 in his brother’s apartment in a working-class immigrant neighborhood in Rome. Authorities had tracked him, as he fled by train from Britain, through France and then through Italy, by monitoring cellular telephone traffic.

Issac practically grew up in Italy, attending Italian schools and acquiring an Italian girlfriend before moving to Britain in 1996. Sonnessa, his attorney, has 10 days to present an appeal of the extradition order to Italy’s highest court, which then must rule within 15 days.

Alberto Cozzella, the Italian prosecutor, supports extradition but also requested the delay. He said Issac ultimately would be handed over to the British, probably before the end of September.

Issac remained quiet during Wednesday’s proceedings, attorneys said, following what transpired but not intervening.