I have previously written about Babar Ahmad and his lies being exposed. Ahmad has been in prison for seven years awaiting extradition to the United States on terrorism charges. Today he has been interviewed and has pleaded to be tried in this country rather than the USA.
He claims that he has seen no evidence against him but it is quite clear that he is very well aware of the case against him and he chooses words carefully to try and gain support. Ahmad is a graduate and the son of middle class Pakistani immigrants. He admits that during the Bosnia/Serbian conflict he joined a Bosnian unit fighting against the Serbians. He is not an armchair commentator.
It is alleged, and he did not deny in interview, that he ran a website called Azzam.com which supported Jihad and Chechen and Taliban fighters, although he claims he does not support terrorism. It is alleged that he had possession of a computer disc containing information regarding movements of the US 5th Fleet and the fact that the fleet was vulnerable to attack in the Straights of Hormuz. An American sailor has been convicted of selling this information to Babar and another.
Ahmad states in interview that if he was tried and had been convicted in this country he would be free by now. How true. This is the real issue. The only reason Ahmad is still in detention here is that he has been fighting tooth and nail, at taxpayers expense, his extradition to the United States. Ahmad could have gone to the US in 2004 and faced trial there. He knows that the Americans don't mess about with terrorists and if he were convicted he faces the rest of his life in gaol. He desperately wants to be tried in Britain as he knows that should he be convicted his sentence will be little more than he has already served.
The European Court of Human Rights will announce their long awaited verdict on his extradition next week. Personally, I hope he is packed off to the US for trial as soon as possible.