Abu Hamza (pictured), former imam of north London’s Finsbury Park mosque has registered an appeal against his incarceration at the high security Colorado prison ADX Florence
Hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza has had enough of the US ‘Supermax’ prison where he spends 23 hours a day in his cell and would go back to a British one ‘in a second’.
The former imam of north London’s Finsbury Park mosque has registered an appeal against his incarceration at the high security Colorado prison ADX Florence.
The convicted hate preacher, 59, claims his conditions at the prison are a breach of his human rights under Article 3 of the European Convention, which protects people from ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’.
Since he was convicted of 10 charges in October 2015 he has been kept in solitary confinement, only being allowed out of his cell for an hour a day, the Sunday Times reports.
US court documents seen by the newspaper reveal even when he’s allowed into the fresh air, he has to be kept in a cage with no other inmates allowed.
Before US prosecutors won their eight-year legal battle to extradite him from the UK in October 2012 he was locked up at Belmarsh in south east London – where things were quite different.
The convicted hate preacher (pictured), 59, claims his conditions at ADX Florence are a breach of his human rights under Article 3 of the European Convention, which protects people from ‘inhuman and degrading treatment’
Hamza, full name Mostafa Kamel Mostafa, which means ‘Egyptian father’ in Arabic, is a double amputee. He is also blind in one eye and suffers from diabetes, psoriasis and a condition that means he sweats excessively and has to shower twice a day.
The 242-page appeal document argues that at Belmarsh, where fellow fundamentalists Anjem Choudary and Lee Rigby killers Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale have also served time, he received daily visits from medical staff. He also got regular doctor visits and was allowed to mix with other inmates.
But at the US supermax, the document claims: ‘The stumps in both arms are subject to regular outbreaks of infections, which have been increasing in severity.
Since he was convicted of 10 charges in October 2015 he has been kept in solitary confinement, only being allowed out of his cell (diagram pictured) for an hour a day
Pictured: An aerial view of ADX Florence ‘Supermax’ jail in Colorado, USA
One of the preacher’s lawyers continues: ‘We strongly believe that the conditions of his confinement violate the expectations of the European Convention on Human Rights and the promises that were made by the US government to the [British and European] courts as part of the extradition process.’
He adds: ‘He would go back to Belmarsh in a second if he could.’
ADX Florence holds 410 male inmates, who are often deemed too dangerous or too much of a national security risk to be at one of the country’s high-security jails.
Lawyers are allegedly hopeful about his chances of appeal, which are being financed by the US taxpayer.
In the UK, the public have paid for £1million of his legal costs since he was first arrested in 2004.
Hamza was arrested in 2004. He is pictured leading lunchtime prayers outside his old mosque in Finsbury Park, north London