‘Extremist can remain British’

A RADICAL Muslim preacher wanted for trial in the United States can hold on to his British passport, a court ruled, dealing a blow to the seven-year effort to strip one of the country’s most notorious Islamists of his citizenship.

Abu Hamza al-Masri’s lawyers successfully argued before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that he had already lost his Egyptian citizenship, and that depriving him of his British passport would effectively make him stateless.

Al-Masri, who is blind in one eye and wears a hook for a hand, has long been Britain’s most recognisable extremist, known for his fiery anti-Western and anti-Semitic outbursts.

He is wanted in the US for a raft of alleged terrorist offences, including trying to set up an al-Qaida training camp in rural Oregon.

British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed disappointment at the decision, but said it would not affect the bid to extradite him. The Home Office declined to say whether it would appeal the ruling, which it said it was still studying.