After Yemen Released His Son on Saturday Yemen Asks for Extradition of Abu al-Hamza, Again! [Archives:2002/05/Front Page]

After Yemen released Mohammed Mustafa Kamil, Abu al-Hamza’s son, a British national, on Saturday, it again requested extradition of Abu al-Hamza. Abu al-Hamza is wanted by the Yemeni government, which accuses him of being the mastermind of terrorist acts in the country. His son, along with other six Britons, were tried by a Yemeni court in the beginning of 1999 on charge of forming a gang to carry out terrorist acts against establishments in Aden.
They were sentenced to different terms of imprisonment. Sources said he was released from al-Mansoura jail under strict security measures. Mohammed Mustafa Kamil was wearing attire and when asked about the reason he answered it was the genuine Islamic clothing. He  was transferred from Aden Airport on board of a plane to Sana’a Airport and then to London.
The sources said the government of Yemen had officially requested the UK government again to extradite Abu al-Hamza to be tried before a Yemeni court.
The British government response last time was that it could not extradite a British citizen to Yemen for there was no agreement between the two countries concerning the extradition of criminals. Yemen previously said it would extradite the British prisoners to complete their terms in jail in Britain if Abu al-Hamza was handed over to Yemen. But again this suggestion did not go through.
Yemen put the possibility that he could be tried before a British court.
However, UK ambassador to Yemen Frances Guy told the YT previously that there was no enough evidence that he had links to terrorist acts in Yemen and that he could not be arrested by police there or appear before court.
UK government appealed officially to Yemen to issue amnesty for British prisoners in Aden. But it didn’t respond to that request.
It seems that Abu al-Hamza will remain a pain in the neck of the two countries’ relations.


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