London: Britain's Home Office has signed an extradition order that will send accused terrorist Abu Hamza al-Masri to the United States for prosecution, CNN has confirmed.
Al-Masri, a one-eyed, hook-handed preacher, already is imprisoned in Britain for inciting racial hatred at his North London mosque. His legal team has 14 days to appeal the decision. If he does not appeal, he could be handed over to US authorities within 28 days.
A Home Office representative said it is likely Al-Masri will appeal the decision, but they have heard nothing from his lawyers. Al-Masri, who lost both hands and one eye working in Afghanistan, is the highest-profile radical Islamic figure in Britain.
He formerly preached at the Finsbury Park Mosque in London. His followers included the so-called 'shoe bomber' Richard Reid — who was convicted of trying to light a bomb in his shoes on a trans-Atlantic flight — and Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person to be charged in the United States in connection with the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.
The Egyptian-born cleric began serving a seven-year prison sentence in 2006 after being convicted in a British court of soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred. But he is also facing 11 terrorism-related charges in the United States, which has promised to press for his extradition when British law allows.
The US charges include 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.
If al-Masri is given a prison sentence following a US trial, he would return to England to complete the rest of his sentence there before flying back to be imprisoned in the United States.
A British judge last year sentenced al-Masri to seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred.
The court convicted the cleric of possessing items including a 10-volume 'encyclopedia' of Afghani jihad, which the prosecutor described as 'a manual for terrorism'; the texts discussed how to make explosives, explained assassination methods, and detailed the best means of attack.
The cleric was also convicted of possessing video and audio recordings which prosecutors said he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred.
Both non-Muslims and Muslims have condemned al-Masri's preaching, which include praising the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, calling al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden a hero, and describing the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster as punishment from Allah because the astronauts were Christian, Hindu and Jewish.
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