Hate cleric Abu Hamza launches legal bid to be moved from tough US prison to ‘soft’ jail in Britain
His lawyers argue it would be better for him to serve his sentence in Britain on 'health grounds'
HATE cleric Abu Hamza has launched a legal fight to be transferred from his high security US jail back to the UK.
The Egyptian-born cleric, 58, was branded 'evil' by a judge in New York in January last year as she jailed him for life, without the possibility of parole, for 11 offences.
He has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement at a high security prison in, Colorado, but now his lawyers are preparing his return to a softer prison in Britain.
His crimes included hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998 which left three Britons and an Australian dead, and plotting to set up a terrorism training camp in the US.
The father-of-eight’s trial took place after an eight-year legal battle to extradite him to the US that cost British taxpayers £25million as well as £3million in benefits, which included housing.
His lawyer Lindsay Lewis confirmed to the that he will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights to be extradited to the UK early next year.
She said: “There is a strong humanitarian case that it would be better for him on health grounds to be incarcerated there.
"It is also extremely unfair his family is not able to visit him in the United States.
"I am continuing to litigate the conditions of his imprisonment here, which I believe run foul of promises made by the US government. They are not meeting his needs. It would be appropriate for him to return to the UK, where his family is and where his conditions would be far better.”
Hamza is currently being held in a 7ft by 12ft cell and his hooks were taken away as they were seen as 'dangerous weapons'.
His current jail is known as the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies', due to its reputation as being inescapable and is home to some of the most dangerous inmates in the U.S. prison system.
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