LONDON, Dec 12: US Attorney General John Ashcroft, on a visit to Britain, on Wednesday refused to rule out the possibility that Osama bin Laden could be executed if he is captured and sent to the United States.

“It is clear that the United States, most of the states in the United States and the federal government of the United States, have laws, the violation of which provides death eligibility in terms of the sentencing,” said Ashcroft.

“We deal with this on a case-by-case basis,” said Ashcroft, speaking at the US embassy in London following talks with Home Secretary David Blunkett.

British Defence Secretary Geoffrey Hoon has stated that should Osama be arrested by British officials, they would be unable to extradite him to the United States if he faced the death penalty there.

Britain has enshrined the European Convention on Human Rights into its domestic laws, and the Convention prohibits the extradition of people to countries where the death penalty still exists.

Ashcroft was asked whether he was willing to give a guarantee that terrorist suspects who were extradited to the United States would not face capital punishment. “Individuals and nations with which we have dealt regarding extraditions have dealt on a case-by-case basis and I think that is the best way to go forward,” said Ashcroft.

Asked whether European states appeared to be “soft” in respect of taking new anti-terrorist powers compared with the United States, Ashcroft said: “I do not stand in judgment of other nations about what they are doing.

“I understand that as mature sovereigns (states), they need to make assessments of their own.”

But he added: “I urge for the safety and security of freedom-loving people everywhere that assessments be made in the light of the nature of terrorism, the kind of international terrorism which has taken so many lives and impaired the capacity of people to operate in freedom.”

The government of Prime Minister Tony Blair has faced fierce opposition from the House of Lords to several provisions within the new anti-terror legislation currently going through parliament.—AFP