Islamist cleric to face judge within 24 hours of landing in US after he and four other terrorism suspects are extradited from UK
The Islamist cleric Abu Hamza and four other terrorism suspects have arrived in the US after being extradited from Britain, US officials have confirmed.
The US attorney's office in New York said Hamza, Khaled al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary were in New York City and were expected to appear in court later on Saturday.
The US attorney's office in Connecticut said Babar Ahmad and Syed Talha Ahsan are scheduled to appear in US district court in New Haven, in connection with the alleged running of a pro-jihad website.
The men were deported on two planes which left a military airbase in Suffolk late on Friday night after the high court rejected their final appeals earlier in the day.
Abu Hamza faces 11 charges in the US relating to hostage taking, conspiracy to establish a militant training camp and calling for holy war in Afghanistan.
His lawyers argued he was not fit to be deported on health grounds but UK judges rejected his appeal, paving the way for his immediate removal from the UK.
The prime minister, David Cameron, has expressed his delight that Hamza had finally been deported from Britain.
"Like the rest of the public I'm sick to the back teeth of people who come here, threaten our country, who stay at vast expense to the taxpayer and we can't get rid of them," he said.
"I'm delighted on this occasion we've managed to send this person off to a country where he will face justice."
Cameron said the government must consider ways of stopping similar cases reoccurring.
"Now we should learn every lesson," he said. "How do we stop these people coming in? How do we get rid of them more quickly? How do we make sure they don't spend so long at taxpayers' expense?
"I'm as frustrated as the rest of the country when these things happen."
The high court also threw out challenges by Babar Ahmad, Syed Ahsan, Khaled al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary after ruling they did not show "new and compelling" reasons to stay in the UK.
Speaking after the US-bound flights had taken off, the home secretary, Theresa May, said: "I am pleased the decision of the court today meant that these men, who used every available opportunity to frustrate and delay the extradition process over many years, could finally be removed.
"This government has co-operated fully with the courts and pressed at every stage to ensure this happened. We have worked tirelessly, alongside the US authorities, the police and the prison service, to put plans in place so that tonight these men could be handed over within hours of the court's decision. It is right that these men, who are all accused of very serious offences, will finally face justice."
After three days of legal argument, Sir John Thomas, president of the Queen's Bench division, and Mr Justice Ouseley lifted injunctions that had been preventing the men's removal.
The decision is the culmination of an eight-year legal battle that has strained the government's constitutional relationship with the European court of human rights in Strasbourg and frustrated politicians, as well as the lord chief justice.
The cases have involved appeals through the hierarchy of British and European courts, then back to the royal courts of justice in London.
Delivering judgment, Thomas said: "All of these claimants have long ago exhausted the [legal] procedures in the UK. There's an overwhelming public interest in the proper functioning of the extradition arrangements in the US. It's important to recognise the finality of these proceedings."
Thomas said extradition proceedings should take months not years and the process had been "disfigured" by protracted delays. "There's no appeal from our decision and the home secretary will be free" to extradite them, he said.
Thomas was scathing about the attempt to try to bring a private prosecution against Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan in Britain. "It's now far, far, far too late to raise it," he said. The use of such a procedure amounted to an "abuse of process".
He also suggested that reform of extradition procedures should be considered to stop them being dragged out. "There may well be a need to reconsider the inter-relationship of the statutory appeal scheme, the ability to reopen appeals and the role of judicial review."
The US wants all five men to face al-Qaida-related terrorist charges in US courts.
Preet Bharara, the US attorney for the southern district of New York, said Hamza would appear in court on Saturday before being arraigned on Tuesday morning during which there would be a pre-trial conference.
"As is charged, these are men who were at the nerve centres of al-Qaida's acts of terror, and they caused blood to be shed, lives to be lost and families to be shattered," he said.
"After years of protracted legal battles, the extradition of these three alleged terrorists to the US is a watershed moment in our nation's efforts to eradicate terrorism, and it makes good on a promise to the American people to use every available diplomatic, legal, and administrative tool to pursue and prosecute charged terrorists no matter how long it takes. Now, Abu Hamza, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz will finally face justice."
Four of the five suspects had claimed that harsh prison conditions in the high-security unit of ADX Florence jail in Colorado, where they may eventually be imprisoned, would breach their human rights. It was said Abu Hamza would not have to spend too long at the facility because of his many medical conditions.
The 54-year-old, who was jailed for seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred, has been fighting extradition since 2004. His lawyers opposed deportation on the grounds that he was suffering memory loss and depression and was unfit to plead. They sought permission for the former imam at Finsbury Park mosque in north London to be given an MRI scan to assess his medical condition.
Ahmad, 37, a computer expert, and Ahsan, 33, are accused of raising funds for terrorism through a website. Lawyers for the two men challenged the director of public prosecutions' decision not to charge them with offences allegedly committed in the UK.
Fawwaz, who is alleged to have been an aide to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s, was seeking disclosure of an 800-page MI6 document relating to the debriefing of another suspect which, his lawyers maintain, would undermine the charges against him. Bary, 52, is also said to have worked closely with Bin Laden. His barrister argued that conditions in US high-security jails would breach his rights under the European convention on human rights – a claim already dismissed by the Strasbourg court.
Bary and Fawwaz are wanted in relation to the bombings of US embassies in east Africa in 1998.
Protesters opposing deportation and supporting Ahmad and Ahsan gathered outside the royal courts of justice. Lines of police officers watched as they chanted: "British justice for British citizens" and waved "Stop extradition" placards. A few wore union flag T-shirts emblazoned with the motto: "Extradite me, I'm British".
After the ruling, Ahmad stated: "Today I have lost my eight-year-and-two-month battle against extradition to the US. I would like to thank all those over the years who supported me and my family: lawyers, politicians, journalists and members of the public from all walks of life.
"By exposing the fallacy of the UK's extradition arrangements with the US, I leave with my head held high, having won the moral victory."
His father, Ashfaq Ahmad, said: "After over 40 years of paying taxes in this country, I am appalled that the system has let me down in a manner more befitting of a third world country than one of the world's oldest democracies.
"It seems that the Metropolitan police, the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service] and even the court have all colluded to implement a predetermined decision which was made in Washington.
"We will never abandon our struggle for justice and the truth will eventually emerge of what will be forever remembered as a shameful chapter in the history of Britain."