'Human rights' judges stop UK sending Abu Hamza aide to the US

The European Court of Human Rights yesterday barred Home Secretary Theresa May from sending terror suspect Haroon Aswat to the US because he is being treated for mental health problems.

Last night Tory MP Patrick Mercer said: "I would have thought that Aswat's human rights would have been best served by him being in America where he can prove his innocence or otherwise in a trial.

"Sending him there would also be wonderful for the human rights of the British taxpayer. This foreign court should not be stopping us from getting him out." Aswat, 39, from West Yorkshire, is currently in Broadmoor highsecurity psychiatric hospital being treated for paranoid schizophrenia.

He is wanted in the US where he is alleged to have plotted with Hamza to set up a jihadi training camp.

His lawyers argued that prison conditions in the US and the jail term he might face - up to 50 years without parole - breached the European Convention on Human Rights, banning "inhuman or degrading treatment". The Strasbourg judges backed his claims because of his mental health problems.

In its decision, the panel of seven judges said: "The court found that there was a real risk that Mr Aswat's extradition to the US and to a different, potentially more hostile prison environment, would result in a significant deterioration in his mental and physical health."

Aswat has been fighting extradition since 2005. He is estimated to have cost the taxpayer more than £600,000 in prison costs and legal aid.

Last night a Home Office spokesman said: "The judgment does not become final for three months and we will consider as a matter of urgency all the legal options which are available to us. This includes whether we request a referral of the case to the Court's Grand Chamber."

(2013-04-17/express)