Terror Suspect Can Be Extradited

A British man accused of supporting terrorism and conspiring to kill Americans can be extradited to stand trial in the United States, a judge ruled Tuesday in the first terrorism case to test new rules allowing U.S. officials to seek extradition without providing evidence of the crimes.

Lawyers for suspect Babar Ahmad said he was being made a scapegoat and vowed to fight his extradition in the High Court.

"This is a difficult and troubling case," said Judge Timothy Workman, who allowed extradition after receiving assurances from U.S. authorities that they would not seek the death penalty or declare Ahmad an "enemy combatant," a category applied to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and one that affords fewer legal protections.

Home Secretary Charles Clarke, Britain's top law-and-order official, has 60 days to decide whether Ahmad will be extradited. Ahmad's lawyers said they would appeal a decision by Clarke to send him to the United States.

"We are still hopeful he will not be extradited, said Ahmad's father, Ashfaq Ahmad. "The home secretary — let's see what he decides. Even if he decides Babar should be extradited, we will go to a higher court and we will fight it to the very end."

The 31-year-old computer specialist has been in custody since his arrest last August on a U.S. extradition warrant that accuses him of supporting terrorism, conspiring to kill Americans and running a Web site used to fund terrorists.

Ahmad, who was indicted in Connecticut in October, is accused of running several Web sites, including Azzam.com, which investigators say was used to recruit members for the al Qaeda network, Afghanistan's ousted Taliban regime and Chechen rebels and to outfit them with gas masks, night-vision goggles and camouflage gear.