Posted on 07/26/2004 12:01:21 AM PDT by weegie
Abu Hamza cannot be sent to the US to face terrorism charges because any guarantee given by the US government not to execute him is worthless, a court was told yesterday.
The extradition hearing for Mr Hamza, 46, began yesterday at the top security Belmarsh magistrates court. The cleric, who used preach at Finsbury Park mosque in north London, is facing a string of terror charges in the US.
His barrister, Edward Fitzgerald QC, said any guarantee that the US government gave not to execute Mr Hamza if he was convicted would be worthless, because it would not be binding on state courts should any seek to try him.
Britain and other EU countries refuse to extradite suspects to the US without an explicit guarantee that the death penalty will not be sought.
Mr Fitzgerald said: "If there is any risk that the state court could try Mr Hamza, that can be a bar to extradition."
A specialist in the US death penalty, Clive Stafford Smith, said: "Mr Hamza can be tried and acquitted in federal court and then tried again in a state court - even in more than one state court - and face the death penalty.
"There is nothing federal authorities can do to stop it. I have had it happen to my clients."
The Home Office yesterday said the US would have to give written guarantees that Mr Hamza would not be executed before he could be extradited.
Mr Hamza is alleged to have been in contact with high-ranking Taliban and al-Qaida terrorists and to have aided the hostage-taking of 16 western tourists in Yemen in December 1998 that ended in the deaths of three Britons.
He is also charged with attempting to set up a training camp for "violent jihad" in Oregon in 1999, and sending one of his followers to an al-Qaida training camp in Afghanistan.
Mr Fitzgerald claimed that Mr Hamza would not get a fair trial. One important witness against him, a former American follower called James Ujaama, reached a plea bargain with the US which saw him serve two years for alleged terrorist offencesthat would usually carry a sentence of 20 years or more.
A second witness is believed to be Feroz Abassi, a man from Croydon who is one of four Britons imprisoned in Guantánamo Bay without charge or trial.
Mr Fitzgerald said that in both cases there was case law that meant Mr Hamza should not be extradited because it would breach his right to a fair trial under the European Convention on Human Rights.
He said the testimony of Mr Ujaama, now out of jail under strict conditions, was tainted because of the plea bargain: "Doubtless he will be recalled if he does not give evidence that is desirable," Mr Fitzgerald said.
The defence will also produce statements from two Britons released from Guantánamo to try to show that any testimony from Mr Abassi was probably obtained through torture or mistreatment.
James Lewis QC, representing the US government, said: "Abu Hamza is a member of a global conspiracy to wage Jihad against the United States and other countries.
"He has consistently advocated hatred and violence against the United States of America, which he called the United Snakes of America."
Mr Hamza, who left the dock due to sickness, was remanded in custody to appear on a video link at Bow Street magistrates' court on August 20.
The extradition hearing is scheduled to resume on October 19.
Save the terrorists; kill the preborn. Makes perfect sense to any liberal anywhere, anytime.
On the other hand, death is what they long for, martyrdom and all the rest of that crap. Spending years and years alive and irrelevant in some federal or state pen would probably be the worst possible sentence for him.
Make the Europeans deal with their own terrorists.
Send in a SpecOps Team, and kidnap him back here. Then, let's kill him.
A special ops team is going to blast its way into London, kidnap him and make its way back to the US??
Oh my aching sides!!!
Who said anything about blasting their way into London? It could be done quietly and probably with the Brits' help. I'd bet they'd love to get rid of that subhuman piece of pigshit, too.
"A special ops team is going to blast its way into London, kidnap him and make its way back to the US??"
Not a problem.
He is being held by the British Police, on the order of the British Government in London. What are a special ops team going to do? Are you seriously suggesting a covert operation to kill a prisoner of the US's strongest ally, on that ally's territory, in contradiction of that ally's law?
I can assure you The Brits would be up in arms. There is a time and place for diplomacy. Life is not a movie
The same as the SAS could have taken out the IRA supporters in NY and Boston?
It wouldn't surprise me if some of them met "sticky ends" if you get my drift.
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