Hate preacher Hamza in bid to return to UK
THE hate preacher Abu Hamza has moved a step closer to freedom in his bid for “compassionate” release to get back to Britain.
Warders at America’s toughest “supermax” prison have supplied his lawyers with his medical records as part of his legal challenge.
If a court grants his freedom there would be nothing stopping the former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, from returning to the UK.
In 2015 hook-handed Hamza, now 63, was told he would die behind bars after being sentenced to life in a US prison.
New York Federal Court Judge Katherine Forrest said he would never be freed after being found guilty of 11 terrorism and kidnapping charges. In sentencing, she said:
“Any time he is released the world will not be a safe place. He has not shown any remorse.”
Last month, the state’s Bureau of Prisons asked New York judge, Analisa Torres, if it could provide the cleric’s medical records to his defence team.
Dangerous
US attorney Audrey Strauss – who is also leading the sex abuse case against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell – wrote to make the request.
She said: “The court’s granting of such permission will obviate the need for defence counsel to obtain a waiver from the defendant for the release of his medical records to his attorneys.”
To seek compassionate release, inmates must file a petition with their prison governor.
It is however only granted “when there are particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances”.
Hamza has no hands and one eye. He is in a maximum security jail in Colorado, nicknamed the Alcatraz of the Rockies, along with some of the world’s most dangerous men, like British shoe bomber Richard Reid and Mexican drug lord El Chapo.
Last year he began suing the US authorities over the “cruel” conditions he claims to be kept in.
He says the removal of his hooks has left him having to tear open food packages with his rotting teeth.