Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza and terror suspect Babar Ahmad will be extradited to the United States after Europe's human rights judges rejected a request for an appeal, officials said.
Hamza's request for an appeal over a European Court of Human Rights ruling that his extradition would not breach his human rights was rejected by a panel of judges tonight, a spokesman for the court said.
The decision means Hamza, who was jailed for seven years for soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred, will now be extradited with four others, including computer expert Ahmad, who has been held in a UK prison without trial for eight years after being accused of raising funds for terrorism.
A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary welcomes today's decision not to refer the cases of Abu Hamza and four others to the Grand Chamber. This follows the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights on April 10 to allow the extradition of these five terrorism suspects to the US.
"We will work to ensure that the individuals are handed over to the US authorities as quickly as possible."
"Today the Grand Chamber panel decided to reject the request," a spokesman for the Strasbourg-based court said.
"This means that the chamber judgment of April 10 2012 is now final."
The request for an appeal delayed a total of five cases related to the same judgment.
The other cases involve Seyla Talha Ahsan, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled Al-Fawwaz.
The European Court of Human Rights said on April 10 that "detention conditions and length of sentences of five alleged terrorists would not amount to ill-treatment if they were extradited to the USA".
The unanimous ruling from the judges in April said there would be no violation of Article 3 of the Human Rights Code - the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment - as a result of detention conditions the five men might face at ADX Florence "supermax" prison in the US.
The length of their possible sentences would not breach their human rights under European law either, the court found.
The judges said that between 1999 and 2006 the men were indicted on various terrorism charges in America.
Hamza has been charged with 11 counts of criminal conduct related to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998, advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 and conspiring to establish a jihad training camp in Bly, Oregon, between June 2000 and December 2001.
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