(ANSA) - An Ethiopian arrested in Rome in connection with the failed bomb attacks in London last
month has said he will answer any questions British investigators put to him on Tuesday.
Hamdi Issac, who has admitted his role in the July 21 attacks, will be questioned by British magistrate Sally Cullan and a Scotland Yard official at Rome's Regina Coeli jail, where he has been held since his arrest last month.
"I will answer Scotland Yard and I will reiterate what I've already told Italian magistrates," Issac said on Monday through his court-appointed lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa. "I did not want to kill anyone because my gesture was merely meant to prove a point."
The questioning is being carried out under an international legal procedure known as a letter rogatory or a letter of request. This is a formal request from a court in one country to the judicial authorities in another, asking them to take testimony from an individual within their jurisdiction.
The British letter rogatory, which was cleared by the Justice Ministry on Friday, contains a suggested series of written questions. The actual questions will be put to Issac by Italian magistrate Domenico Miceli via a translator.
The international rogatory procedure has been set in motion pending clearance of a request from London that Issac be extradited to the UK under the new European arrest warrant system.
If Issac is not extradited, the information gathered during the rogatory will be used by British police and prosecutors in their investigation and eventual judicial proceedings.
The date for the extradition hearing has been set for August 17. A three-judge panel, headed by Miceli, is expected to issue its ruling on the same day. Issac has let it be known he will oppose extradition and should Italy decide to hand him over to Britain, he will have the right to appeal to Italy's supreme court.
The European warrant allows for fast-track extradition procedures for a series of crimes. Extradition procedures, which previously took years, must now be carried out within 90 days. But British officials are concerned that the extradition may be delayed because Italian antiterrorism prosecutors have opened their own probe to establish whether Issac's contacts in Italy amounted to a logistics operation supporting terrorists.
Issac, who is also known as Osman Hussein, was arrested on July 29 in Rome, at the home of his brother, Ramzi, who runs an Ethiopian clothing shop in the capital. Ramzi is also being held at Regina Coeli prison while a third brother, Fethi, is being detained in Brescia. Chief prosecutor Franco Ionta has stressed that Italian prosecutors were obliged by law to pursue their probe from the moment they became aware that the bomber may have committed terrorist crimes in Italy too. This meant that the chief suspect had to remain in their custody.
But Pietro Saviotti, the prosecutor in charge of Rome's antiterrorism team, made it clear last week that the Italian judiciary would in no way "hamper British justice." Italian prosecutors may also be ready to wrap up their own investigations in time for the extradition hearing, Saviotti added.
If they decide not to prosecute him, this would remove any obstacle in the way for Hamdi's extradition, the prosecutor said. Meanwhile, three other men were on Tuesday remanded in custody by a London court in connection with the July 21 failed attacks.
Ibrahim Muktar Said, Yassin Hassan Omar and Ramzi Mohamed, are charged with attempted murder and possessing explosives. Another man has been charged in relation to an unexploded device found on July 23. All four will appear in court on November 14.
