Brit Judge: Better a British Terrorist than a Stateless Islamist

Radical Imam Accused of Terrorism Can Keep His British Passport

VoA News: Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza, who is wanted in the United States on terrorism charges, has won an appeal to keep his British passport.

Hamza is currently serving a seven-year prison term in Britain for inciting his followers to attack non-Muslims. He has been fighting attempts to extradite him to the United States to face criminal charges there.

A special tribunal in London ruled Friday that Hamza should be allowed to keep his British passport to avoid becoming “stateless,” since he has already been stripped of citizenship in Egypt, where he was born.

British authorities said they were disappointed by the court’s decision, but that the attempt to transfer Hamza to U.S. jurisdiction would go forward.

The extradition case is currently before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France.

Hamza, who is blind in one eye and has had his right hand replaced by a steel hook, is known for his fiery preaching. He was the imam of a mosque in north London before being sent to prison in February 2006.

The radical cleric faces trial in the United States on charges that he set up an al-Qaida-style training camp in the northwestern state of Oregon. He also has been accused of sending money and recruits to the Taliban in Afghanistan and of aiding a gang of kidnappers in Yemen in the 1990s.

In challenging extradition proceedings against Hamza and three codefendants, Hamza’s attorneys have contended he would face degrading and inhumane treatment in a “super-secure” U.S. prison if he is convicted.