Abu Hamza and Babar Ahmad extradition approved
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The European Court of Human Rights has given its final approval for the extradition of five major terrorism suspects from the UK to the US.
The court's highest judges said they would not re-open the cases of Abu Hamza al-Masri, Babar Ahmad and others.
The decision means that the extradition of the men, wanted for years by the US, is likely to happen within weeks.
Each man said they would face inhumane treatment in the United States if they were sent there.
In a brief statement, the Home Office said that it welcomed the decision and would work to ensure the extraditions would happen as quickly as possible.
Abu Hamza is accused of planning a terror training camp in the US and assisting hostage-taking in Yemen. The US says that Babar Ahmad and his co-accused, Syed Talha Ahsan, ran a jihadist website in London that provided material support for terrorism. Adel Abdul Bary, Khaled Al Fawwaz are accused of being aides to Osama bin Laden in London.
In a statement, the Strasbourg court said: "On 10 April 2012 the European Court of Human Rights held, in the case of Babar Ahmad and Others v. the United Kingdom, that there would be no violation of the applicants' rights if extradited to stand trial in the United States.
"On 9/10 July 2012, five of the applicants lodged a request for referral of the case to the Grand Chamber. Today the Grand Chamber Panel decided to reject the request. This means that the Chamber judgment of 10 April 2012 is now final."
Abu Hamza had alleged that he faced inhumane and degrading treatment if imprisoned for life without possibility of parole. The other four men, Babar Ahmad, Syed Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled Al Fawwaz said that they faced an inhumane regime of solitary confinement in a special "supermax" prison.
Reacting to the decision, Babar Ahmad's family said: "The decision of the Grand Chamber is largely irrelevant to us as this matter should never have come to this stage had the British police done their job almost nine years ago and provided the material seized from Babar's home to the CPS, rather than secretly passing it to their US counterparts."
"The CPS is now in possession of all that material which forms the basis of the US indictment and should immediately prosecute Babar for conduct allegedly committed in the UK. There is enormous public interest in Babar being prosecuted in the UK, as reflected by the fact that almost 150,000 members of the British public signed a government e-petition to this effect last year. Moreover, a British businessman Karl Watkins has recently commenced his own private prosecution of Babar based on the principle of the matter."
"We now call on the home secretary to immediately undertake to halt any extradition until the Director of Public Prosecutions makes a decision on this material that been in his possession for several months."
