Italy approves extradition of UK bomb suspect

An Italian court yesterday ordered the extradition to Britain within 35 days of one of the suspected bombers in attacks on London's transportation network on July 21.

Ethiopian-born Hamdi Issac, also known as Osman Hussein, has admitted to taking part in the London attacks but has insisted they were only meant to scare people, not kill them.

None of the bombs used in the attack exploded. His lawyer Antonietta Sonnessa said Issac would appeal against the extradition ruling.

"My client cannot have an impartial trial there," she said. The 35-day timeframe for the extradition covers the period allowed to Issac for his appeal process.

It will also allow Italian prosecutors to complete their own investigations into suspicions he might have had terror links within Italy.

Issac was seized in Rome after fleeing Britain in the wake of the attack, which killed no one but brought chaos to London exactly two weeks after suicide bombers had killed more than 50 people in the British capital.

According to Paolo Iorio, the lawyer representing Britain at yesterday's hearing, devices in the July 21 attack did contain known explosives.

A copy of yesterday's sentence, obtained by Reuters, said British officials believed Issac and his associates may have used a homemade explosive known as TATP (triacetone triperoxide).

TATP is the same explosive that "shoebomber" Richard Reid had used in his shoes, which he unsuccessfully tried to ignite on a transatlantic flight in 2001. Instructions for making TATP from household chemicals are easily obtained on the Internet.

"A preliminary analysis of samples of the materials recovered from the homemade devices indicates that the materials had properties of explosives," it said.

It added that an explosive device, found in an open area in Little Wormwood Scrubs in west London days after the July 21 attacks, contained TATP.

According to the court document, Issac said that he and his associates met the day before the attacks to prepare the devices at the house of Yasin Hassan Omar, a Somali who came to Briton as a child, and was arrested in Birmingham last month.

Omar is suspected of trying to explode a bomb at Warren Street station on London's underground rail network.

The document also identified Muktar Said Ibrahim, a British citizen originally from Eritrea, as the alleged author of the plan. He was arrested in west London.

Issac, who lived in Italy from 1991 to 1996, sat quietly during the proceedings. He said nothing upon hearing the verdict but looked downcast, according to Mr Iorio.

"He understands Italian, he was following what people were saying," Mr Iorio said. "I think he was sad."

Once his appeal is lodged Italy's highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation, will have 15 days to make a final ruling, meaning that Issac could be handed over to the British authorities before the end of next month - much quicker than lawyers had initially expected.

Mr Iorio said he believed Italy would uphold the extradition order. He said the courts set the precedent last year, when it authorised the extradition to Spain of a prime suspect in the Madrid bombings that killed 191 people.

Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, also known as "Mohamed the Egyptian", had fought the extradition.

"I believe I will win again," Mr Iorio said.