Hours after arriving in the United States, two of the four terrorism suspects extradited from Britain along with the fiery Islamic preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri appeared in federal court in New Haven to face an array of terrorism charges.
The two suspects, Babar Ahmad and Seyla Talha Ahsan, pleaded not guilty Saturday in Federal District Court in New Haven, according to The Associated Press, and were expected to remain in custody until their trial. Mr. Ahsan and Mr. Ahmad had been charged with providing support to terrorists and with conspiracy-related offenses.
Mr. Masri, 54, and two other suspects, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, are scheduled to appear Saturday in federal court in Manhattan.
The United States had been seeking to extradite Mr. Masri since 2004 to face 11 charges that include calling for holy war in Afghanistan, playing a role in kidnappings in Yemen and participating in a plot to set up a terrorism training camp in Bly, Ore. Since 2006, he had been incarcerated in Britain on other charges, including incitement to murder. He attracted a following among militants as much as he drew the reproach of his enemies and the attention of the British security services.
Mr. Bary and Mr. Fawwaz are charged in the conspiracy that led to the killing of more than 200 people in the 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and in Nairobi, Kenya.
In a statement, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, called Mr. Masri and the other suspects in Manhattan “the nerve centers of Al Qaeda’s acts of terror.”
The five men were extradited on Friday after a British court ruled that they had exhausted their final appeal, ending years of legal battles that tested the balance between civil liberties and national security.
“Each of these claimants long ago exhausted the procedures in the United Kingdom,” said Sir John Thomas, one of two senior judges hearing the case in the British High Court. Noting that they had lost an earlier appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in favor of extradition in April, he said it was in “the interests of justice” that they be tried as quickly as possible.
The extraction, Mr. Bharara said in his statement, was “a watershed moment in our nation’s efforts to eradicate terrorism.”
Before the ruling in Britain on Friday, a crowd of protesters confronted a line of police officers outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, brandishing placards proclaiming, “Islam will prevail” and “U.S. and U.K. the real terrorists.”
Lawyers for Mr. Masri said on Tuesday that he was physically unfit to face the accusations against him and that it would be “oppressive” to extradite him under the terms of British law. He has diabetes, depression and memory loss, his lawyers say.
Mr. Masri, born Mostafa Kamel Mostafa in Egypt, went to Britain as a student in 1979. As he grew in stature as a radical preacher, his sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in North London attracted many followers at a time when British security services seemed to play down his importance.
But the mosque became a gathering point for militants who were later linked to terrorist attacks. One was Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber,” who is serving a life term for his effort to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001. Another was Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of having trained to be the “20th bomber” in the 9/11 attacks.
Sarah Lyall reported from London, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Charlie Savage contributed reporting from Washington.
The two suspects, Babar Ahmad and Seyla Talha Ahsan, pleaded not guilty Saturday in Federal District Court in New Haven, according to The Associated Press, and were expected to remain in custody until their trial. Mr. Ahsan and Mr. Ahmad had been charged with providing support to terrorists and with conspiracy-related offenses.
Mr. Masri, 54, and two other suspects, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, are scheduled to appear Saturday in federal court in Manhattan.
The United States had been seeking to extradite Mr. Masri since 2004 to face 11 charges that include calling for holy war in Afghanistan, playing a role in kidnappings in Yemen and participating in a plot to set up a terrorism training camp in Bly, Ore. Since 2006, he had been incarcerated in Britain on other charges, including incitement to murder. He attracted a following among militants as much as he drew the reproach of his enemies and the attention of the British security services.
Mr. Bary and Mr. Fawwaz are charged in the conspiracy that led to the killing of more than 200 people in the 1998 bombings of the American Embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and in Nairobi, Kenya.
In a statement, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, called Mr. Masri and the other suspects in Manhattan “the nerve centers of Al Qaeda’s acts of terror.”
The five men were extradited on Friday after a British court ruled that they had exhausted their final appeal, ending years of legal battles that tested the balance between civil liberties and national security.
“Each of these claimants long ago exhausted the procedures in the United Kingdom,” said Sir John Thomas, one of two senior judges hearing the case in the British High Court. Noting that they had lost an earlier appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in favor of extradition in April, he said it was in “the interests of justice” that they be tried as quickly as possible.
The extraction, Mr. Bharara said in his statement, was “a watershed moment in our nation’s efforts to eradicate terrorism.”
Before the ruling in Britain on Friday, a crowd of protesters confronted a line of police officers outside the Royal Courts of Justice in central London, brandishing placards proclaiming, “Islam will prevail” and “U.S. and U.K. the real terrorists.”
Lawyers for Mr. Masri said on Tuesday that he was physically unfit to face the accusations against him and that it would be “oppressive” to extradite him under the terms of British law. He has diabetes, depression and memory loss, his lawyers say.
Mr. Masri, born Mostafa Kamel Mostafa in Egypt, went to Britain as a student in 1979. As he grew in stature as a radical preacher, his sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in North London attracted many followers at a time when British security services seemed to play down his importance.
But the mosque became a gathering point for militants who were later linked to terrorist attacks. One was Richard Reid, the “shoe bomber,” who is serving a life term for his effort to bring down a trans-Atlantic flight in December 2001. Another was Zacarias Moussaoui, accused of having trained to be the “20th bomber” in the 9/11 attacks.
Sarah Lyall reported from London, and Alan Cowell from Paris. Charlie Savage contributed reporting from Washington.