Ten years after his arrest on a French warrant, Britain has agreed to extradite a 35-year-old Algerian man wanted in connection with a series of bomb attacks in Paris in 1995, the Home Office said today.

Rachid Ramda is alleged to have helped plan and finance three attacks in the French capital in 1995, including a train bombing that killed eight people and wounded 150 in the Saint Michel Metro station on the Left Bank.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke agreed to the French extradition request on April 6, but the Home Office did not announce the decision until today.

A Home Office spokeswoman said that Mr Ramda intends to seek a judicial review of Mr Clarke's decision, and that he will not be extradited until his application has been heard by the High Court.

Mr Ramda, 35, has been held without charge at Belmarsh maximum security prison in south London for ten years, ever since his arrest in November 1995. His case has been the subject of tense negotiation between British and French authorities ever since.

In 2002, then Home Secretary David Blunkett approved Mr Ramda's extradition - only for the High Court to block the handover because of allegations that evidence connecting him to the bombings had been extracted from other witnesses under torture. Judges at the time said that they could not be satisfied Mr Ramda would receive fair treatment in France.

In response, French officials have accused the British government of not co-operating in the global fight against terrorism.

Two Algerian men have already been imprisoned for their role in the attacks. Boualem Bensaid and Smain Ali Belkacem were sentenced to life imprisonment by a French court in 2002. The men carried out the bombings for the GIA, a radical Islamic movement opposed to the Government of Algeria.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• No room for Baldrick in overstretched army
• Freecycle booms as middle class feels squeeze
• Marksman gets £5,000 over ‘serial killer’ quip