Britain will not extradite alleged conspirator to US

The European Court of Human Rights ruled against extraditing to the United States a prisoner accused of conspiracy to establish a jihad training camp in Oregon. Haroon Aswat, whose nationality is unknown, was arrested in 2005 in Britain after a request by U.S. authorities for extradition, The Guardian reported Tuesday. Aswat is currently being held at Broadmoor psychiatric hospital in Berkshire, England, and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, the newspaper said. The ECHR deemed conditions at the federal super-maximum security prison in Florence, Colo., unacceptable for Aswat due to his mental illness. The Strasbourg, France, court wrote it had given "full consideration to the submissions of the U.S. Department of Justice ... and observed, in particular, that it could not be determined with certainty in which detention facility or facilities Mr. Aswat would be placed if extradited to the USA, either before or after trial." "It was also unclear how long he might expect to remain on remand pending trial. As for his detention following a possible conviction ... although Mr. Aswat would have access to mental health services regardless of which prison he was be detained in, his extradition to a country where he had no ties and where he would face an uncertain future in an as yet undetermined institution, and possibly be subjected to the highly restrictive regime in ADX Florence, would violate article 3 of the convention," the ruling said.