BRITAIN - To send embassy bomb suspects to U.S.

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Monday December 17 9:59 AM ET

Britain to Send Embassy Bomb Suspects to U.S.

LONDON (Reuters) - An alleged aide to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and two Egyptians wanted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania lost a last-ditch battle on Monday to avoid extradition to the United States.

The House of Lords dismissed an appeal by Saudi businessman Khalid al-Fawwaz, 37, and Egyptians Adel Abdel Bary, 41, and Ibrahim Eidarous, 44.

Fawwaz is wanted in the United States for allegedly conspiring with bin Laden over the embassy bombings, in which more than 225 people were killed. The other two face similar charges.

All three have fought a three-year legal battle against extradition which has run up a legal bill for British taxpayers estimated at $1.46 million.

The Law Lords, the nation's highest court, unanimously dismissed their final appeal bid.

The men claimed at a House of Lords hearing in October that the United States had no right to seek their extradition because their alleged crimes had not taken place on U.S. soil.

They also said it was unfair they would be unable to challenge the main evidence against them since it came from two unidentified witnesses.

``There is no doubt that conspiracy to murder is a crime within the jurisdiction of the United States and that if the acts were done here it would constitute the crime of conspiracy to murder under English law,'' said Lord Slyn.

``In my opinion it was not necessary to show that the acts relied on for the conspiracy were all done in the United States of America,'' he added, dismissing the appeal.

U.S. prosecutors said al Fawwaz, 37, traveled to Kenya in the early 1990s to set up bin Laden's network there, and accused him of helping plan the attacks there and in Tanzania.

He later moved to Britain, set up home in London with his family and established a group called the Advice and Reformation Committee, which was said to be campaigning for peaceful reform in Saudi Arabia.

But the U.S. prosecutors said he was in fact deeply involved in a worldwide conspiracy against Americans with bin Laden, aided by Eidarous and Abdel Bary.

-- Anonymous, December 17, 2001


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