Blunder may free 'terror envoy' (Big oooops)

[ECH1969]

The Home Office has missed a three-year deadline to deport an alleged al-Qaeda ringleader to Italy

AN EXTRAORDINARY legal blunder by Whitehall officials may allow a suspected terror ringleader being held in Britain to go free. Italian officials claim that Britain has taken so long to extradite Farj Hassan Faraj that a three-year deadline has passed and he can no longer face trial in Milan for plotting bomb attacks in Europe.

Mr Faraj, 24, has been described as the “European envoy” for the Iraqi terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who is blamed for a string of car bomb attacks on US and British troops and the murder of Western hostages, including the Liverpool engineer Ken Bigley.

Italian intelligence chiefs claim that Mr Faraj was in direct contact with al-Zarqawi, for whose capture the US is offering a $25 million (£14 million) bounty. They also allege that Mr Faraj was one of the first al-Qaeda-trained operatives sent to Europe.

Mr Faraj was allegedly trained at a camp in Herat, Afghanistan, run by al-Zarqawi. He was reportedly sent to Europe to recruit a cell shortly after the September 11 attacks.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22989-1851014,00.html

[uppityperson]

1. #3 is let free?