LONDON — Radical preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri and four other terrorism suspects who have fought for years to avoid facing charges in the United States have no more grounds for appeal and can be extradited from Britain immediately, Britain’s High Court ruled Friday.
The U.S. Embassy said it was pleased with the decision, and the British government said it planned to put the men on planes to the United States “as quickly as possible.”
The BBC reported that its correspondent saw a police convoy carrying al-Masri leave Long Lartin Prison in central England, saying the suspect was en route to a hand-over with U.S. marshals.
Judges John Thomas and Duncan Ouseley rejected lastditch applications by al-Masri, Khaled al-Fawwaz, Babar Ahmad, Adel Abdul Bary and Syed Talha Ahsan, who have been battling extradition for between eight and 14 years.
Thomas said there were no grounds for any further delay, noting that it was “in the interest of justice that those accused of very serious crimes, as each of these claimants is in these proceedings, are tried as quickly as possible as is consistent with the interests of justice.”
“It follows that their extradition to the United States of America may proceed immediately,” the judge said.
The five have sought to avoid extradition by raising concerns about human rights and the conditions they would face in a U.S. prison. Both British and European courts have ruled that they can be sent to the U.S. to face charges, but they sought last-minute injunctions from the High Court.
The suspects face a variety of charges stretching back several years.
The best known of the defendants is al-Masri, an Egyptian-born former nightclub bouncer who turned London’s Finsbury Park Mosque into a training ground for radical Islamists during the 1990s. The mosque was once attended by Sept. 11, 2001, conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and “shoe bomber” Richard Reid.
Al-Masri is wanted in the U.S. on charges that include conspiring with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
Ahmad and Ahsan face charges in Connecticut relating to websites that purportedly sought to raise cash, recruit fighters and seek equipment for terrorists in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Bary and al-Fawwaz were indicted with others, including Osama bin Laden, in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998. Al-Fawwaz faces more than 269 counts of murder.
Al-Masri has been in a British jail since 2004 on separate charges of inciting racial hatred and encouraging followers to kill non-Muslims.
Lawyers for the 54-yearold preacher, who has one eye and hooks in place of hands he claims to have lost fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, argued in court that his deteriorating physical and mental health meant it would be “oppressive” to send him to a U.S. prison. They said he suffers from depression, chronic sleep deprivation, diabetes and other ailments.
The judges said his conditions could be treated in the U.S., and concluded that “there is nothing to suggest that extradition in this case would be unjust or oppressive.”
Before Friday’s ruling, a small group of Islamist protesters gathered outside the court to denounce the planned extraditions. A few scuffled briefly with police and one seized a placard reading “Sling His Hook” from a demonstrator expressing the opposite view.
While al-Masri has been portrayed in the British media as one of the most dangerous men in the country, the case of Ahmad has raised concerns among legal experts and human-rights advocates.
Ahmad, a London computer expert, is accused in the U.S. of running terrorist-funding websites. He and Ahsan both face charges including using a website to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country.
Some lawyers and lawmakers have expressed concerns about the case because Britain agreed to extradite him even though his purported crimes were committed in Britain and British courts declined to prosecute him for lack of evidence.
In prison since 2004, Ahmad has been held without charge for the longest period of any British citizen detained since the 9/11 attacks.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 10/06/2012