The London Daily News

Judges has put the break on the extradition of radical Muslim preacher Abu Hamza.

The hook handed Egyptian has served a seven year sentence of incitement to murder and incitement to racial hatred and has been in custody bearing the outcome of a US extradition request.

The 51-year-old is accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon between 1998 and 2000, and conspired to take 12 Westerners hostage in Yemen in 1998 in a bus attack that left several people dead.

But today the European Court of Human Rights blocked the extradition of Hamza and three other terror suspects saying they wanted more time to examine possible human rights breaches if the men face trial on charges which could mean life sentences without parole.

There were concerns he would receive "cruel and unusual treatment" in a supermax prison. Both appealed separately to Strasbourg Court on the grounds that their treatment and potential punishment could violate Human Rights Convention provisions on the "prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment". The Court agreed Hamza would not received the proper "level of support" given his hook and blindness in one eye.

He became well known as the imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London but was dismissed from his position in 2003 after making speeches supporting al-Qaeda and criticising the invasion of Iraq.

Government "note" ruling

Home Secretary Theresa May said the Government "noted" the ruling but added all four would remain in custody. The ruling gives the UK Government until September 2 to submit observations and declares:

"The (Human Rights) Court decided to prolong, until further notice, the interim measures it had adopted indicating to the UK Government that it was in the interests of the proper conduct of the proceedings that the applicants should not be extradited while the cases were being examined by the court".