UK seeks quick ruling on 'terror cleric'

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Britain has urged the European Court of Human Rights to move quickly in considering the case of a radical Muslim preacher due to be extradited to the United States on terrorism-related charges.

The European Court in Strasbourg, France, ruled Monday that Abu Hamza, who is also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Mustafa Kamal Mustafa, may not be extradited until it considers his appeal.

"If the European Court (is) staying his extradition, that's a matter for them," a British Home Office spokeswoman, who declined to be named in line with policy, told CNN Wednesday. "We shall seek to have his case expedited so it's heard as soon as possible."

Judges in Great Britain have ordered Abu Hamza extradited to the United States, but he appealed to the European Court on Friday. He argued that his extradition would violate European human rights provisions because of health problems. He also cited the possibility that he would receive a life sentence without the possibility of parole, according to the court.

The European court is Abu Hamza's last avenue of appeal against his extradition. He has exhausted his appeals in Britain.

The United States wants Abu Hamza to stand trial on 11 charges, including conspiracy in connection with a 1998 kidnapping in Yemen and conspiring with others to establish an Islamic jihad, or holy war, training camp in rural Oregon in 1999.

Egyptian-born Abu Hamza is already serving a seven-year sentence in Britain for inciting racial hatred at his north London mosque and other terrorism-related charges.

He has previously denied wrongdoing, saying, "They have no evidence against me whatsoever apart from me trying basically to open the people's eyes about certain principles."

If Abu Hamza is extradited, his British sentence could be interrupted so he could stand trial in the U.S., the Home Office has said. If he receives a prison sentence in the U.S., Abu Hamza would be returned to England to complete his sentence there before serving time in the U.S., the Home Office said.

The one-eyed, hook-handed cleric is one of the highest-profile radical Islamic figures in Britain.

He formerly preached at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London, where his followers included the so-called "shoe bomber" Richard Reid, who was convicted of trying to light a bomb in his shoes on a transatlantic flight.

They also included Zacarias Moussaoui, who was charged in the U.S. in the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Abu Hamza was also convicted of possessing eight video and audio recordings that prosecutors said he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred. In all, police seized some 2,700 audio tapes and about 570 video tapes from two addresses -- one of them his home -- during raids in 2003.

The material included a 10-volume "encyclopedia" of Afghan jihad, which prosecutor David Perry described as "a manual for terrorism." The texts discussed how to make explosives, explained assassination methods and detailed the best means of attack.

Both non-Muslims and Muslims condemned his preaching, which praised the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., called al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a hero, and described the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster as punishment from Allah because the astronauts were Christian, Hindu and Jewish.

The U.S. accuses Abu Hamza of helping kidnappers who abducted 16 Western tourists in Yemen in December 1998. Four hostages were killed and two injured in a rescue operation.

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said in 2004 that Abu Hamza could face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted of conspiracy to take hostages and hostage-taking.

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