Babar Ahmad extradition decision approved by the Home Secretary
After having spent an uknown amount of our money on 2 months worth of extra legal advice about United States law, which led to The Home Secretary seems to have decided to allow the extradition of Babar Ahmad to the USA, under the controversial Extradition Act 2003.
126 Members of Parliament have signed Early Day Motion 241 condemning this unequal "fast track" extradition sysem with the USA, since it does not require the US authorities to present any prima facie evidence to a British court, a procedure which does have to be followed if the UK Government wants to extradite someone from the USA !
If there is evidence of a terrorist crime, then Babar Ahmad should be tried under UK law, in a British court.
Babar Ahmad, is a British Muslim, who faces charges in the USA not related to any alleged terrorist activities in the USA, but to alleged support, purely via websites hosted in the USA, for the Taleban in Afghanistan and various groups in Chechnya, none of which were proscribed terrorist groups under the United Kingdom's Terrorism Act 2000 section 3 Proscribed groups, either at the time of the alleged offences, or even today.
There are still plenty of unanswered questions about this case, to do with the risk of the involvement not of the US civilian Justice system, but the notorious US Military Guantanamo Bay / Military Trubunal, the existance of which has done so much to damage the reputation of the US Government's claims to be defending freedom and liberty and democray, both in the USA and everywhere else.
Similar legal arguments will also apply to the case of another British IT technician, Gary McKinnon, who, unlike babar Ahmad, is accused of actually "attacking" the US Military by "hacking" in to over 90 of their military computer systesm, both before, and after the US Military was supposedly on maximum alert after the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks, supposedly to get a look at UFO information and details about the military "interrogation" training centre formerly known as the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia.
Gary McKinnon's next appearance at Bow Street Magistrates' Court is on Thursday November 24th 2005.
Like Babar Ahmad or the NatWest 3 merchant bankers, Gary McKinnon should be tried under UK law in a British court.