Cleric is cleared for extradition
LONDON — Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al Masri, whose sermons celebrated the Sept. 11 attacks and called for gays to be stoned to death, was cleared Thursday for extradition to the U.S. on charges of plotting to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
But nearly four years after the United States originally sought the transfer, the cleric still has other avenues of appeal, and a final ruling could be weeks or months away, authorities said.
Al Masri, a former imam at a North London mosque, is already serving a seven-year sentence in Britain for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. He was convicted in 2006.
U.S. prosecutors have accused him of attempting in 1999 to set up a facility in Bly, Ore., where volunteers would be trained and equipped to fight as insurgents in Afghanistan.
He is also charged in connection with the 1998 kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen that left three Britons and an Australian dead after Yemeni troops stormed the place where they were being held.
The 49-year-old cleric, who said he lost an eye and a hand fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, has denied involvement in the Yemen kidnappings. His lawyer, who has called him “a prisoner of his faith,” has said the extradition request is politically motivated.
A Muslim member of Parliament, Khalid Mahmood, said the decision was a welcome milestone in a case that has plagued Britain’s Muslim community since Al Masri took over Finsbury Park Mosque “by using intimidation and threats.”
“For too long, Abu Hamza tarnished their name, and now they will be delighted to learn he will face further charges in the U.S.,” Mahmood said.
The cleric has 14 days to appeal to Britain’s high court. If he does not, he could be handed over within 28 days.
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