LONDON (AFP) — Lawyers for the radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, convicted in Britain of race-hate crimes and soliciting murder, began a legal challenge Monday against his extradition to the United States.
The Egyptian-born former imam of the once notorious Finsbury Park mosque in north London is wanted for allegedly trying to set up an Al-Qaeda training camp in the northwest US state of Oregon.
But his legal team are arguing at London's High Court that his extradition, which was signed by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith in February this year, should be blocked as evidence gained by torture was being used against him.
Lawyer Alun Jones told the court in written arguments that his client should be tried in London, not the United States, because he was living here at the time of the alleged offences.
A "genuinely independent criminal justice system" would regard that as "proper and just", he said, arguing that the extradition request was "tainted by torture and oppression".
He also said it would be "unjust and oppressive" to send Hamza for trial in the United States because of the passage of time since the alleged offences while the US authorities could not guarantee his human rights.
Hamza, 49, who has one eye and hooks for hands over partially-amputated limbs, is facing a total of 11 charges, including sending money and recruits to assist Afghanistan's hardline former rulers the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
He is also accused of assisting a gang of kidnappers in Yemen who abducted a 16-strong party of Western tourists in 1998. Four people -- three Britons and an Australian -- were killed.
The firebrand preacher followed the first day of proceedings from Belmarsh high security prison in southeast London, where is serving a seven-year sentence for inciting followers to kill non-believers, via videolink.
The hearing was listed under his real name -- Mostafa Kamel Mostafa.
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