A British terrorism suspect jailed while fighting extradition to the United States will stand for parliament in next month's British election from his prison cell, the political party backing him said on Wednesday. Computer expert Babar Ahmad, 30, has been indicted in the United States for running a Web site that raised funds for Muslim militants in Afghanistan and Chechnya. "There is no prohibition against someone on remand (pre-trial detention) standing in parliament," film actor Corin Redgrave, who founded the Peace and Progress party with Oscar-winning sister Vanessa, told Reuters. "He will be a very popular candidate. There is a deep-seated sense of injustice in this country about what happened in Guantanamo." Peace and Progress is also fielding Azmat Begg, father of a former detainee at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a candidate in the May 5 election.Ahmad's British supporters say he should not be extradited because Britain failed to find evidence to charge him with a crime at home. His cause has been taken up vocally in Britain's Muslim community. "If you vote for Babar it is a vote for justice," Ahmad's wife Maryam told reporters outside London's Bow Street Magistrates Court, where his extradition case is being heard. Ahmad has been held in London's top security Belmarsh jail since August last year, denied bail while his case is heard. The case was adjourned on Wednesday until May 17, when a decision on his extradition is expected.
Ahmad will stand in Brent North, an area of north west London with a large Muslim population. The constituency is now held by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party with a large majority. But Labour narrowly lost a one-off election in nearby Brent East last year after Muslim voters and others angry about the war in Iraq deserted it. Begg will stand in Birmingham, his home city, which also has a large Muslim community. Ahmad would not be the first British parliamentarian to stand for election from jail. Most famously, Northern Ireland nationalist Bobby Sands died on hunger strike in prison in 1981 after winning a seat.