UK to hand cleric to US ‘as quickly as possible’

Radical cleric Abu Hamza and four other terrorist suspects wanted by the US authorities will be handed over “as quickly as possible”, according to the British home secretary.

Britain can extradite its most notorious Islamist cleric to the US to stand trial on charges that he supported al Qaeda and aided a fatal kidnapping in Yemen, the European Court of Human Rights ruled.

The Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al Masri, a one-eyed radical with a metal hook for a hand who praised the Sept 11, 2001 attacks, faces over 100 years in US prisons if found guilty, a step he said would contravene his human rights.