On October 5, 2012, after a legal battle covering 8 to 14 years years in each case, five suspected terrorists, including radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, will be extradited to the US, UK judges have ruled.
The other men being sent to the US are Babar Ahmad, Syed Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, in cases that are not linked to Abu Hamza's case.
In their ruling, the judges said there was no further avenue of appeal open to the five men. The Home Office said it was working to "extradite these men as quickly as possible."
The 14-page ruling emphasized that each of the appellants long ago exhausted the procedures in the UK and then applied to the European Court of Human Rights. The court (Queen's Bench Division) called for finality in litigation and the "overwhleming public interest in the proper functioning of the extradition arrangements and the honoring of extradition treaties."
Nevertheless, the court said it had thoroughly reviewed over 15 files and had heard argument over three days on the applications raised, so that the applicants have therefore had a very full opportunity to argue their positions to the court.
Each appellant brought separate claims for judicial review and for stays of their extradition, raising different issues in each case except for an issue common to four of them relating to the prison conditions they would experience at ADX Florence, Colorado.