Study of the Guardian's article:
Abu Hamza extradition halted by judge
High court judge issues interim injunction to prevent cleric being sent to US for trial after last-minute appeal, by Alan Travis - The Guardian, 26th of September, 2012
"The
decision follows last-minute representations from Hamza's lawyers of
new material to prevent his being sent to the United States to stand
trial on terror charges dating back to 1998.
A Judicial Office
spokesman confirmed that both Hamza and a second terror suspect facing
extradition to the US, Khaled al-Fawwaz, had sought injunctions to
prevent their removal from Britain.
"A high court judge has
considered the applications on the papers and adjourned the cases to a
hearing in open court. The judge has issued interim injunctions
preventing their removal prior to those hearings. The judge has directed
the hearings be fixed urgently," said a spokesman.
Fawwaz has
been detained in Britain since 1998 when he was accused of being
involved in the bombing of American embassies in three east African
capitals."
The entire article may be read on the Guardian's website: click here.
***
Article explanation
By Camille Dupuy, 3e année, Licence Droit Bilingue, Université du Havre
Abu Hamza is accused by the UK of solliciting murder, and racial hatred, and is accused by the US of hostage taking in Yemen, conspiring to establish a training camp in Oregon.
Summary of proceedings:
- May 2004 : arrested in London under an US warrant based on UK-US extradition treaty (2003).
- 2007 : British courts ordered extradition.
- 2010: Interim order by the ECHR
- 2012 : ECHR decides that the extradition will not constitute a breach of the European Convention of Human Rights.
Abu Hamza and his lawyers made a appeal, rejected on 24th of September.
Abu Hamza and his lawyers made a appeal, rejected on 24th of September.
He is now trying a last way to block the extradition : he is seeking for an
injunction from the British court. His arguments are that his mental and
physical healt are bad and he is not strong enough to face terror
charges.
The
decision of the ECHR court could create a huge precedent. Their argument are
that prisonners will not face inhuman and degrading treatment in the US,
and that the US jails don't breach Human Rights. Contrarily to its previous cases, the Court seems to infer that prisonners who based their defense on the Human Right
argument could now be extradited to the US, which used not to be the case.
It
also arises the critism of the US-UK treaty, signed in 2003, in order
to apply the Terrorism Act. British claim that the treaty is imbalanced
against UK.
***
Pour aller plus loin (notes of the teacher):
- UK extradition law: key cases
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15334015
- European Court of Human Rights relevant cases :
ECHR, 18th January 2011
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/eu/cases/ECHR/2011/211.html&query=title+%28+abu+%29+and+title+%28+hamza+%29&method=boolean
ECHR, interim decision, 6th July 2010
http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/eu/cases/ECHR/2010/1067.html&query=title+%28+abu+%29+and+title+%28+hamza+%29&method=boolean
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