Italy to extradite bomb suspect

A suspected bomber in the July 21 London attacks will be extradited to Britain within 10 days after an Italian court rejected his appeal yesterday, a lawyer for Britain said.

Ethiopian-born Hamdi Issac was arrested in Rome days after fleeing there in late July after the attacks on trains and a bus that killed no one but brought chaos to London.

Two weeks earlier, suicide bombers killed more than 50 people in London in attacks on similar targets.

Yesterday Italy's high court rejected his appeal against an earlier lower court decision to extradite him.

"It has been much faster than they thought... He must now be extradited within 10 days," said Paolo Iorio, London's lawyer in the case who announced the court's decision.

Information gleamed from interrogation in Italy can now be used in Britain as evidence against him, Dr Iorio said. That includes Mr Issac's admission of taking part in the attacks .

Mr Issac said the four bombs placed on underground trains and a bus were meant only to scare people.

He said it was an anti-war protest and a protest against mistreatment of Muslim women during British investigations after the July 7 strikes.

"The others and I did not intend to kill the passengers," Mr Issac said, according to handwritten court notes of comments he made before an Italian judge on July 30, which were seen by Reuters.

"I want to underline that it was the first time I participated in this kind of action. I decided to do it because after the (July 7) attacks, episodes occurred of mistreatment towards Muslim women."

Three other men named by police as key suspects in the July 21 attacks have been charged in Britain with attempted murder.

The speed of Mr Issac's extradition process was hailed as proof of the effectiveness of the new pan-European Union arrest warrant - agreed after the September 11 attacks on the United States to replace extradition procedures often lasting years.