FINAL APPEAL TO STOP BABAR’S EXTRADITION

Lawyers acting for Babar Ahmad are making a final appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to prevent the computer expert from London’s prestigious Imperial College being extradited to the US for allegedly running terrorist websites.
A decision on the case is expected to be made after Britain’s highest judicial authorities, the House of Lords, refused permission to appeal at the weekend.
Law Lords rejected Babar’s appeal when concluding that two points of law presented to them were not matters of “public importance.” But his family said that the refusal was a “complete travesty of justice.” The Attorney General and the Crown Prosecution Service had confirmed in writing several times that there is “insufficient evidence to charge Babar with any crime,” they said.
The computer expert was arrested under a US extradition warrant in August 2004. He was previously released without any charge after being detained eight months earlier under Britain’s anti-terrorism laws. His case is also being taken up by his local MP, Sadiq Khan. The Government has come under widespread pressure over the non-reciprocal nature of its controversial extradition treaty with the US, which came into force in the UK in 2004 but was only recently ratified by the US Congress.