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Held in US, hook-handed Abu Hamza wants to return to UK. Who is he?
Abu Hamza: Abu Hamza's second wife Najat Chaffe wrote to a New York judge asking for his return to the UK from the prison in Colorado.
Hate preacher Abu Hamza launched a fresh bid to return to the UK ten years after he was jailed for a slew of terrorist offences. The convicted terrorist’s wife called for his release from the maximum security jail where he is being held in the US to “come back home to his family where he belongs”.
His second wife Najat Chaffe wrote to a New York judge asking for his return to the UK from the prison in Colorado. He has been kept in solitary confinement for eight years in ADX Florence “supermax” jail.
“The yearning to have him back in our lives has only intensified over time”, she wrote last month in a letter, adding, “To witness his reunion with our precious grandchildren and to enjoy quality time together as a family would be a dream come true.”
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Who is Abu Hamza?
Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, also known as Abu Hamza, is an Egyptian cleric who was the imam of Finsbury Park mosque in London. Hook-handed Abu Hamza was jailed in 2015 for terror offences following his extradition from the UK.
The cleric was jailed in the UK in 2006 after being found guilty of inciting violence. In 2012, he was extradited to the US and found guilty of 11 terror offences.
Has he tried to return to UK before?
It is not the first time Abu Hamza has tried to return to the UK. In 2017 he complained about the “inhuman and degrading” conditions at the US jail which he argued were a breach of his human rights. Court documents stated that he was “confined within a cell-sized cage” during the hour of recreation time he is given each day. His cell is unsuitable for the double-amputee, who is blind in one eye, he claimed, adding, “The stumps in both arms are subject to regular outbreaks of infection, which have been increasing in severity.”
What has Abu Hamza's lawyer said?
His lawyer said that Abu Hamza "would go back to Belmarsh in a second if he could. We strongly believe that the conditions of his confinement violate the expectations of the European Convention on Human Rights and the promises that were made by the US government to the [British and European] courts as part of the extradition process.”
