Abu Hamza ‘launches fresh bid to be released from US ”hell” prison claiming Covid has left him too ill to live in solitary confinement’
- Abu Hamza was handed life sentence and has since been in solitary confinement
Abu Hamza has launched a new bid for release from a US prison dubbed ‘a clean version of hell’, according to reports.
The hook-handed hate preacher, 65, was given a life sentence in 2015 after being extradited from Britain on US terrorism charges, and has since been held in solitary confinement at ADX Florence, a ‘supermax’ prison in the Colorado desert.
But Hamza has now claimed that multiple bouts of Covid have left him too ill to remain in the facility, which is thought to be the most secure prison in the world, The Sun reported.
The former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, whose lawyers claim is in ‘substantially failing health’, reportedly spends 23 hours a day in a windowless and soundproof cell.
His counsel, citing the ‘draconian conditions’ at the prison, is understood to be asking a judge for ‘compassionate release’.
Abu Hamza, 65, (pictured) has handed a life sentence in 2015 after being extradited from Britain on US terrorism charges and has since been held in solitary confinement at ADX Florence, a ‘supermax’ prison in the Colorado desert
But Hamza was now claimed that multiple bouts of Covid have left him too ill to remain in the facility, which is thought to be the most secure prison in the world. Pictured: ADX Florence
His lawyer Michael Bachrach is expected to argue that the jail’s conditions ‘have led to multiple bouts of Covid-19, substantially failing health, and 24/7 solitary confinement for the past eight years’.
He is allegedly speeding up a planned appeal in light of Hamza’s health, The Telegraph reported. He expects to file the appeal by October 31.
The terrorist’s bid for compassionate release was first raised three years ago but was held up by another ongoing appeal claiming that his trial and appeal lawyers gave him ‘ineffective assistance’.
Hamza, who reportedly praised the hijackers who carried out the 9/11 attacks, was extradited to the US in 2012 to face 11 terrorism charges including the kidnapping of 16 tourists in Yemen in 1998.
He also faced charges for assisting terrorists and trying to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
At his sentencing in New York the judge branded his actions as ‘barbaric, misguided and wrong’. She said he was not remorseful and argued that if at ‘any time he is released, the world will not be safe’.
An attempt to appeal over his extradition to the US had failed when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that ‘conditions at ADX would not amount to ill-treatment’.
MailOnline has approached Mr Bachrach for comment.
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