Extradition from Britain—Babar Ahmad

The extradition hearings for terror suspect Babar Ahmad, who has been accused of running websites that encourage waging holy war, has been extended for an extra two months as the United Kingdom’s Home Secretary Charles Clarke continues to determine whether Mr. Ahmad should be sent to the United States.^[1]

A British judge ruled in May that Mr. Ahmad could be extradited to the US to face charges that he raised money to support terrorism in Chechnya and Afghanistan by internet sites and emails.^[2] Secretary Clarke then had 60 days to decide whether to approve the decision; when that deadline loomed, he was granted a two-month extension on July 15.^[3] Now that the September 15 deadline has expired, he has received another extension to examine the “complex representations made about the case.”^[4]

If Secretary Clarke approves the extradition, the case could go to the UK’s High Court on a judicial review application.^[5]

During the initial hearings, concerns about where Mr. Ahmad would end up if he is extradited centered on whether he would be tried in a civilian court or be put into military detention, where he might face the death penalty.^[6] Those fears were somewhat allayed when the US embassy provided a diplomatic note to British District Judge Timothy Workman saying that American prosecutors would not seek the death penalty if Mr. Ahmad is convicted.^[7] Judge Workman concluded that the risk of the death penalty being imposed was “negligible,” and that it was unlikely that Mr. Ahmad would be held as an enemy combatant in a facility such as Guantánamo Bay.^[8]

Mr. Ahmad’s extradition hearing was carried out under the auspices of Britain’s very controversial Extradition Act of 2003, which became effective on January 1, 2004. We have previously discussed its impact on another suspected terrorist, Haroon Rashid Aswat, here.

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[1] More Time for Extradition Decision, Evening Standard, Sept. 19, 2005, available here.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Rosie Cowan, Briton ‘May Face Execution,’ The Guardian, Mar. 4, 2005, available here.
[7] Vikram Dodd, US Closer to Putting Terror Suspect on Trial, The Guardian, May 18, 2005, available here.
[8] Id.