Abu Hamza extradition delayed

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled on Monday that Abu Hamza should not be extradited until judges could examine his case. The Home Office said it would abide by the court's request.

America accuses Abu Hamza, whose real name is Mustafa Kamal Mustafa, of conspiring to establish a training camp in Bly, Oregon, where followers received combat and weapons training for jihad, or holy war, in Afghanistan.

They also say he helped the extremists who kidnapped 16 foreign tourists in Yemen in 1998. Three British tourists and one Australian visitor were killed in a shoot-out between Yemeni security forces and the captors. Hamza is also accused of facilitating terrorist training in Afghanistan.

In June, the High Court ruled that he should be sent to the US to face the charges and the House of Lords upheld the ruling. That prompted Abu Hamza to file an appeal with Europe's highest human rights court complaining that if extradited, he could be exposed to torture or inhumane treatment in the US.

The Strasbourg court said that it had asked Britain not to extradite Abu Hamza until it had given "due consideration to the matter".

"We understand that the European Court has today ordered that Abu Hamza's extradition should be stayed while it considers his appeal against extradition to the US," the Home Office said in a statement. "The decision is a matter for the European Court. The UK cannot extradite Hamza while the court has ordered his extradition to be stayed."

A former imam at London's Finsbury Park Mosque, Egyptian-born Abu Hamza is one of Britain's best-known Islamist radicals. He is blind in one eye and has hooks in place of the hands he says he lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Abu Hamza was arrested in London on a US extradition warrant in 2004, but the process was put on hold while he stood trial in Britain for inciting racial hatred and encouraging followers to kill non-Muslims. He was convicted in 2006 and is serving a seven-year sentence.

If extradited and convicted of the US charges, he would not be allowed to be imprisoned there until completing his sentence in Britain.