Haroon Rashid Aswat (Gujarati: હારૂન રશીદ અસવત; born c. 1979) is a British terrorist who has been linked to the 7 July 2005 bombings in London.[1][2] American officials allege that he has ties to al Qaeda,[3] and have sought his extradition to the United States, which is supported by the British government.[4] After his internment in Broadmoor Hospital in 2008, in 2010 the European Court of Human Rights blocked efforts to extradite Aswat due to concerns over the conditions of his potential imprisonment in the United States.[4] This decision was upheld on 11 September 2013, meaning that he can not be extradited while under treatment for paranoid schizophrenia.[5]
In 1999 together with Abu Hamza and American-born convert James Ujaama, the three attempted to buy land in Oregon, United States to build a training camp for young Muslims. During this period, Aswat lived in Seattle, Washington for over a month, and it is alleged that he was an MI6 informant.[citation needed]
By late 2004 and early 2005, Aswat was resident in South Africa. US authorities tried to extradite him with regards the Oregon camp project, but as he was a British Citizen who had committed no crimes in South Africa, the South African authorities refused the extradition request. After the London 7/7 bombings, local South African newspapers reported that Aswat had been living a quiet life there for at least five months.[8] Neighbors and co-workers described Aswat as "a family man" and said that he showed no apparent interest in radical Islamic politics.[8]
American counter-terrorism officials state that they began investigating Aswat in 2002.[9][10][11][12][13] In reporting on Oussama Kassir's 2009 trial Oregon Live described Lebanese-born Swedish militant Kassir and Aswat taking a bus from the east coast to Oregon.[12][13] According to The Sunday Herald, by 1999, Aswat was calling himself a "hit man" for bin Laden.[9]
During the 2009 trial of Lebanese-born Swedish militant Islamist Oussama Kassir, prosecutors alleged he and Haroon Aswat traveled to Bly, Oregon to provide military training at the Dog Cry Ranch.[13]
American and British counter-terrorism officials stated that they found Aswat's passport on a man killed in action in Afghanistan in early 2003, and believed him to be Aswat.[9][14]
In the first two weeks following the 7 July 2005 bombings, police sources initially told newspapers that Aswat made some 20 mobile phone calls to two of the suspected bombers just hours before the blasts.[15][16] On 31 July 2005, following a more thorough forensic analysis of the remains of the bombers' phones, The Times reported that:[3] "British investigators, examining whether telephone calls were made between the London bombers and Aswat before the attacks of 7/7, caution that the calls may have been made to a phone linked to Aswat, rather than the man himself."
The New York Times quoted unnamed security officials that when Aswat's presence was brought to the attention of American authorities, that they wanted to subject him to an extraordinary rendition.[14]
The New York Times sources said British officials objected, stating that "He's got U.K. papers, and they said you can't render somebody with U.K. papers."[14]
On 29 July 2005, during an interview on Fox News a former US prosecutor named John Loftus, asserted that Aswat was a double agent, backed by MI6.[17] Loftus claimed that MI6 intervened to protect Aswat while he was trying to evade capture.
Arrest and extradition to the United Kingdom
Having travelled via Pakistan, Aswat was arrested in Zambia on 20 July 2005.[8] He was deported from Zambia to the UK on 7 August 2005 and arrested on his arrival.[10] Following Aswat's capture his family issued a press release, stating that Aswat "has not lived at this house and we have not had contact with him for many years... there is no story that we can provide."[18]
U.S. extradition proceedings
Once Aswat was transferred to the United Kingdom, he was held in detention on a U.S. arrest warrant.[19][20][21] American justice officials sought to try Aswat for his alleged role in setting up the Oregon training camp in 1999.
A British judge approved Aswat's extradition on 30 November 2006, discounting the concern Aswat's lawyers expressed that there was "a real risk" Aswat would face inhumane treatment in U.S. custody.[22] But in 2008 he was transferred to Broadmoor Hospital, a high-security psychiatric hospital after being diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.[5]
On 16 April 2013, the European Court of Human Rights decided that Aswat's extradition to the U. S. would violate his right for protection against inhumane treatment, given his mental state.[24] The UK Government appealed for the case to be reconsidered by the court's Grand Chamber, but on 11 September 2013 that was rejected, making the decision become final that Aswat cannot now be extradited.[5]
^ abc
Dominic Casciani (8 July 2010). "Abu Hamza US extradition halted". BBC News. Archived from the original on 8 November 2010. Abu Hamza, Mr Ahmad and Mr Ahsan face life sentences and US prosecutors have said that Abu Hamza could be jailed for 100 years. Mr Aswat faces a maximum of 50 years.
^ abc"UK blast mastermind sold CDs in Johannesburg". rediff. 2 August 2005. Archived from the original on 20 December 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2007. Haroon Rashid Aswat, believed to be the mastermind behind the July 7 London bombings that killed 56 people, made his living by selling compact discs in downtown Johannesburg and was known in his neighbourhood as a 'nice family man.'
^ ab"Trial record provides account of Oregon jihad camp". Komo News. 18 October 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2016. In late 1999, Ujaama made a pitch to a London imam, Abu Hamza al-Masri. He promised al-Masri a safe haven, recruits and weapons to transform the desert ranch into a Muslim military training camp, court records said.mirror
^ abc
Les Zaitz (17 October 2009). "Terrorist plot unravels at rural Oregon ranch". Oregon Live. Archived from the original on 24 January 2012. Retrieved 30 April 2012. The events that led to the effort 10 years ago to establish a jihad camp outside Bly have been well-chronicled. But testimony and exhibits from Kassir's trial in New York provide the fullest account to date of what went on behind the gates of the Dog Cry Ranch.
^ abc
William K. Rashbaum; Raymond Bonner (30 July 2005). "Suspect in London fatal blasts eluded arrest". International Herald Tribune. Archived from the original on 14 August 2007. Aswat first came to the attention of the U.S. counterterrorism investigators in 2002 in Seattle. But the authorities there believed he had subsequently been killed fighting U.S. forces in Afghanistan. In the weeks before the London bombings, the South African authorities informed the U.S. authorities in New York that Aswat was living in their country, one of the officials said.
^
Simon Freeman (8 August 2005). "British al-Qaeda suspect facing extradition to US". The Times. London. Archived from the original on 23 May 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2007. Mr Keith said that Mr Aswat had claimed to have been in a camp in Afghanistan and to have met Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. He remained at the camp in Bly, Oregon, for a month before going back to Seattle and his whereabouts after that were unknown, Mr Keith said.
^"Court halts radical's extradition". Fox News Australia. 9 July 2010. Archived from the original on 9 July 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2013. The Strasbourg-based court said it wanted to look into the men's concerns over the length of their possible sentences and conditions at the ADX Florence "supermax" prison in Colorado where they were likely to be held
