30 No. 13 Int’l Enforcement L. Rep. 494

International Enforcement Law Reporter

October, 2014

IV. Extradition

U.K. EXTRADITES TERRORIST SUSPECT ASWAT TO THE U.S

Bruce Zagaris

On October 21, 2014, the United Kingdom government extradited to the United States Haroon Aswat, 40, who is accused of conspiring with Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, known as Abu Hamza al-Masri, of establishing a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon in 1999. Last year, the European Court of Human Rights blocked Aswat’s extradition, ruling that his detention in the U.S. in a supermax prison could further harm his mental health. He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and has undergone treatment in a high-security psychiatric hospital since 2008.¹

Aswat allegedly traveled to the U.S. in 1999 to set up a training camp to train militants who wanted to fight in Afghanistan. Abu Hamza, who was convicted in New York earlier this year on 11 kidnapping and terrorism charges, allegedly dispatched him.²

The U.S. charges -- four counts of conspiracy and providing material support to Al-Qaeda and terrorists, carry a maximum sentence of 35 years if convicted.

Aswat had been held at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, in Berkshire, England, since 2008. In 2005, Zambian officials arrested Aswat and extradited him to the U.K., where he was re-arrested by U.K. authorities at the request of the U.S. government.³

On October 20, 2014, he appeared before U.S. federal judge Katherine Forrest in Manhattan and entered a not guilty plea. The next hearing is scheduled for January 23 and a trial could start in September 2015.⁴

In April 2014, the High Court asked the U.S. for assurances that, if sent to the U.S., Aswat would be held in a psychiatric referral center and examined by doctors.⁵ On September 4, 2014, two High Court judges -- Lord Thomas, the lord chief justice, and Mr. Justice Mitting, said they were satisfied with assurances the U.S. government gave about the way Aswat would be treated prior to and during any trial.⁶

The extradition of Aswat is another victory for U.S. and U.K. counterterrorism enforcement policy, especially since they overcame an adverse decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), which held that Aswat’s extradition would breach an article prohibiting inhuman and degrading treatment. The delay in the extradition due to the EHRC proceedings shows the ways in which courts and governments try to balance counter-terrorism and international human rights.

Footnotes

Steven Erlanger, Britain: Mentally III Terrorism Suspect, Long Sought by the U.S. Is Extradited, N.Y. Times, Oct. 22, 2014, at All, col. 1.

Terror suspect Haroon Aswat appears in New York court, Telegraph, Oct. 21, 2014.

Terror suspect Haroon Aswat appears in New York court, supra.

⁴

⁵

Terror suspect Haroon Aswat’s extradition approved, BBC, Sept. 4, 2014.

⁶

Theresa May permitted to extradite terror suspect Haroon Aswat to US, Guardian, Sept. 4, 2014.

End of Document