via Reuters Breaking News
Tue 13 July, 2004 21:56
A terminally ill Egyptian suspected of links to Osama bin Laden and involvement in bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Africa will be freed on bail, a High Court judge has ruled. Mr Justice Collins said on Tuesday the 42-year-old, who can only be identified as Mr X because of the risk of vigilante attacks, was being allowed free "for a very good reason" because he had bone marrow cancer and wanted to be reunited with his family.
| Great! Does that mean his victims can be reunited with their families, too? |
The United States wants Mr X extradited on charges relating to the 1998 bombings of its embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in which more than 200 people were killed. U.S. government lawyers have described him as an instrumental figure in bin Laden's "holy war" against the United States. In his ruling, the judge urged Home Secretary David Blunkett to make a final decision on extradition as soon as possible. Mr X has been detained at the maximum-security Broadmoor hospital and will be subject to stringent bail conditions upon his release. He will have to live at a designated address and his phone calls and contacts will be limited because of fears he might contact sympathisers of bin Laden's al Qaeda network, the judge said. A Home Office spokesman said Blunkett did not oppose the bail application, as long as the conditions were imposed.
| None of the dead people oppose it, either. Nothing to worry about there... |
The spokesman said Mr X's extradition was still pending after Blunkett last week rejected a request from his lawyers that it be waived on health grounds. "The home secretary will not comment in detail on the substance of his decision, apart from to say he weighed up the solicitor's representations and the medical evidence and concluded that they were outweighed by other factors, including the serious terrorist offences of which Mr X stands accused," the spokesman said. In response to the judge's call for extradition to be settled, the spokesman added: "If we could have concluded this case earlier, we would have done." He said Mr X was due to be released on Wednesday.
UK Laws and Cabinet officials appear to be a deadly combination - for UK residents. |