THE HAGUE, Feb 12: Dutch-Pakistani Al Qaeda suspect Sabir Khan launched a last-ditch bid on Tuesday to halt his extradition to the United States where he is accused of planning acts of terror, including a suicide attack on a US base in Afghanistan.

Netherlands Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten in December gave his final approval for the extradition of Khan, 26, but his lawyers argued that the US was complicit in his torture in Pakistan, where he was first arrested in 2010.

Khan’s extradition would “give the impression that the Netherlands tolerates the violation of human rights”, lawyer Andre Seebregts told a District Court judge in The Hague, where an urgent interdict has been filed.

Mr Seebregts argued that Khan, arrested in a dawn raid in Quetta on September 23, 2010, had been tortured while in a Pakistani jail with the full knowledge of US intelligence agencies.

His extradition to face five terror-related charges in a New York court would breach the European Convention on Human Rights, preventing torture, as well as Dutch law, which prohibits the handing over of a suspect to a country suspected of involvement in torture, Mr Seebregts argued.—AFP