Abu Hamza and four other terror suspects extradited from UK to US

Radical cleric Abu Hamza and four other terror suspects have been extradited to the United States.

The radical cleric has been fighting extradition to America since 2004.

The British High Court threw out their final challenges yesterday afternoon and the suspects were handed over to American officials at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk in England late last night.

The departed the UK on two separate planes. The four other suspects are Babar Ahmad, Syed Ahsan, Khaled Al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary

Babar Ahmad's younger brother Hamja said he is worried about what would happen to him when he arrives in the States.

"My brother's an Asperger's sufferer. He's a vulnerable person who will be put into pre-trial solitary confinement for many years. I do not consider that to be justice," he said.

The British Home Secretary, Theresa May, says she would investigate why the extradition process had taken so long.

"We need to look at the various legal stages and ask whether we need to change the system so that people have their legal rights, but so that we can speed these processes up," she said.

Hamza, who was jailed in the UK for seven years for soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred in 2006, first faced an extradition request from the Americans in 2004.

He has been charged with 11 counts of criminal conduct related to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998, advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001, and conspiring to establish a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon, between June 2000 and December 2001.

Ahmad, a computer expert from south London, and Ahsan are accused of offences including using a website to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country.

They wanted their removal stopped so they could challenge a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions not to allow British businessman Karl Watkin, a campaigner against the UK’s extradition arrangements with the United States, to bring prosecutions against them in the UK.

Bary and Al-Fawwaz were indicted – with Osama bin Laden and 20 others – for their alleged involvement in, or support for, the bombing of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998.