more photos“It follows that their extradition to the United States of America may proceed immediately," the judge said in a ruling that was welcomed by the U.S. Embassy and prompted assurances from the British government to put the men on planes to the United Staates “as quickly as possible."
The five have sought to avoid extradition by raising concerns about human rights and the conditions they would face in a U.S. prison. Both British and European courts have ruled that they can be sent to the U.S. to face charges, but they sought last-minute injunctions from the High Court.
The suspects face a variety of charges stretching back several years.
The best known of the defendants is al-Masri, an Egyptian-born former nightclub bouncer who turned London’s Finsbury Park Mosque into a training ground for radical Islamists during the 1990s. The mosque was once attended by Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and “shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
Al-Masri is wanted in the U.S. on charges that include conspiring with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
Ahmad and Ahsan face charges in Connecticut relating to websites that allegedly sought to raise cash, recruit fighters and seek equipment for terrorists in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Bary and al-Fawwaz were indicted with others, including Osama bin Laden, for their alleged roles in the bombings of two U.S. embassies in east Africa in 1998. Al-Fawwaz faces more than 269 counts of murder.
Al-Masri has been in a British jail since 2004 on separate charges of inciting racial hatred and encouraging followers to kill non-Muslims.
