Abu Hamza arrested at the request of the US, which seeks his extradition
Islamic cleric Abu Hamza (aka 'The Hook') was arrested in London early this morning at the request of the US authorities. They are seeking his extradition to the United States and have announced his indictment on 11 charges.
I have just been watching US Attorney General John Ashcroft on BBC News24, leading a news consference in New York where he read out the charges Abu Hamza faces and stating that the maximum penalty is "death or life imprisonment"; of course, this is grand-standing for US domestic public opinion as British law will require the US to agree that it will not seek to apply the death penalty prior to any extradition being agreed by the British authorities - as a signatory to the ECHR the UK could not agree to an extradition without such an agreement, nor should it.
On the other hand, I expect the British authorities (and me, for that matter) will be quite happy to have complied with the US request to arrest this man; he has been a troublesome presence here for a number of years, but I suspect that the British authorities felt that the evidence they had to hand was not sufficient for us to arrest and charge him ourselves, although his life has already been made as difficult as the law allows. I cannot imagine most in the UK will object to his extradition, always provided that the US agrees to provide the necessary assurance relating to the non-availability of the death penalty as a potential punishment in his case.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Welcome to my comment area. Whilst all comment is welcome you are requested to respect the views of others. To read full terms for use of this facility, please visit my 'Terms of Use' section, linked to under the 'About this Blog' heading at top right of the blog. Note added 12JUL2010 - All comments will now be pre-moderated before they appear in this blog; this is a measure to prevent 'spam' commenting, which has become frequent of late. Thank you.