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PROSECUTORS in the US say that they will wait “for as long as it takes” to get their hands on Abu Hamza, the man they refer to as “The Claw”.

Proceedings to extradite the cleric will resume next month but he will not be sent to stand trial in America until he has completed his jail sentence in Britain. Abu Hamza has been in prison since May 2004 and, assuming that he receives the usual 50 per cent remission, he will remain there until November 2007.

If his extradition has been approved by then he will be put on a flight to New York. Should his lawyers still contest it, he is unlikely to be released because of the seriousness of the charges against him in the US.

The FBI claims that Abu Hamza is a much greater terrorist threat than the British authorities have acknowledged. Raymond Kelly, the New York Police Commissioner, said: “Think of him as a freelance consultant to terrorism worldwide.”

The 11-charge indictment against Abu Hamza accuses him of involvement in the kidnapping and murder of western hostages in Yemen, an attempt to set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, and sending recruits for terrorist training in Afghanistan.

A spokesman for the New York Police Department expressed surprise at the the British sentence, saying that the cleric would face harsher treatment in the US. “We will not give up the effort to see him face justice here as soon as we are allowed,” he said.

Part of the reason for delaying the extradition is because the US Senate has not yet ratified the 2003 extradition treaty with Britain. If that had been done Abu Hamza could have been temporarily surrendered to US jurisdiction before the completion of his sentence.

Edward Fitzgerald, QC, Abu Hamza’s lawyer, said that his client would contest efforts to extradite him. Mr Fitzgerald said that he would not receive a fair trial in the US and feared that he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

Haroon Rashid Aswat, one of Abu Hamza’s most trusted lieutenants, is also fighting extradition on the same indictment. Mr Aswat, from Dewsbury, North Yorkshire, was arrested in Zambia a month after the July 7 bombings and deported to London. His name had been circulated around the world in connection with the bombings because it was believed that he knew Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the July 7 gang, who was also from Dewsbury. But Mr Aswat has not been charged in connection with the July attacks.

Abu Hamza also faces a legal battle to retain his British citizenship, which was revoked in 2003 by the Home Secretary. The cleric has appealed but he was arrested before that case could be heard. The case is likely to be postponed further until the completion of his appeal against his convictions.

Abu Hamza became a British citizen in 1986 after living here for more than five years. During that time he was married twice — a civil marriage to his first wife, Valerie, and an Islamic marriage to his present wife, Nagat. He has seven children.

THE PROCEDURE

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