Abu Hamza shown red card

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights has given the final all-clear to the extradition to the US of Abu Hamza, Babar Ahmad and three other terrorism suspects.

The five had appealed a unanimous ruling by the Court in April that their potential imprisonment in a US “supermax” prison would amount to “inhuman and degrading treatment” under Art 3 of the European Convention, in Babar Ahmad & Ors v UK (App Nos 24027/07, 11949/08, 36742/08, 66911/09 and 67354/09).

Their extradition was put on hold until the appeal was heard.

This week, however, the Grand Chamber Panel decided to reject the five men’s request that the case be re-opened. This means the Court’s judgment in April is final.

Roger Smith, director of human rights group Justice, said: “It’s the correct decision.

“It’s a good example of how the European Convention protects the outer posts of the constitution and leaves a whole range of decisions up to politicians and decision-makers.

“Some people might think Abu Hamza and Baber Ahmad should not be sent to the US because of the disproportionality of the sentences they might receive, but that’s a political argument – it’s not a human rights or a constitutional argument. So too, is the agreement with the US over extradition, which Justice has opposed.

“Abu Hamza generally gets no sympathy, but the Baber Ahmad case is more ambiguous and does attract sympathy, and we have the extradition case of [Pentagon hacker] Gary McKinnon to come. I think Ahmad should be charged and prosecuted in the UK.”

Smith said European Court of Human Rights cases such as this could be speeded up if the Court was given more funds.

“It is short of funding and has a massive backlog of about 100,000 cases. This means cases can go into a black hole.”

Hamza faces charges on 11 different counts in the US, related to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998, advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 and conspiring to establish a jihad training camp in Oregon, US between June 2000 and December 2001.

Ahmad, an IT specialist who allegedly promoted terrorism through a website, has been held without trial for eight years.