THE HAGUE, Feb 26: Dutch-Pakistani Al Qaeda suspect Sabir Khan on Tuesday lost a bid to stop 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.

“The presiding judge dismisses the plaintiff’s bid,” Dutch judge Gerard van Ham said in the Hague district court verdict published online. Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten in December gave his final approval for the extradition of Mr Khan, 26, but his lawyers sought to overturn that ruling by saying that the US was complicit in his torture in Pakistan, where he was first arrested in 2010.

Mr Khan’s lawyer Andre Seebregts told judge Van Ham that Mr Khan, arrested in a dawn raid in the Pakistani city of 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.

The lawyer further said that once Mr Khan was in US hands, his rights were potentially threatened because a previous Dutch terror suspect was mistreated while in US custody.

Tuesday’s judgement however said that “in light of Mr Khan’s urgent application it cannot be assumed that US authorities were (directly) involved in his torture in Pakistan”, which would have violated his rights and prevented his extradition.—AFP