(ANSA) - Rome prosecutors representing British police in extradition proceedings against a key
suspect in the failed July 21 London bombings will probably request a temporary transfer to the UK.
Prosecutor Alberto Cozzella is expected to formalise the request for Hamdi Issac's temporary extradition at a hearing scheduled for August 17 in Rome, sources at the prosecutor's office said.
The intention is to ensure that Rome prosecutors are able to conclude their own investigations into the
Ethiopian-born Hamdi's contacts in Italy and, if necessary, proceed to formal charges. They have already obtained Hamdi's preventive custody on suspicion of belonging to or associating with an Italian-based network of international terrorists.
If the temporary extradition is granted, this will mean Hamdi, 27, can be tried by a court in Britain.
The four other men charged in connection with the action were remanded in custody on Monday by a London court. Their trial date has been fixed for November 14 .
After the British trial, Hamdi would have to return to Italy so that prosecutors' can complete their enquiries or, if they are already complete, bring any formal charges they deem necessary. Hamdi's Italian lawyer, Antonietta Sonnessa, is expected to appeal to the country's supreme Court of Cessation, if the judges decide on August 17 to grant the temporary extradition.
Her client has already made it clear he wants to oppose extradition. Sonnessa said he would be more likely to receive a fair trial in Italy, owing to the emotionally charged nature of the investigation in London. But Rome's chief anti-terror prosecutor Pietro Saviotti says the Italian judiciary will in no way "hamper British justice". He has also said Italian prosecutors may be ready to wrap up their own investigations before the extradition hearing.
Issac, who is also known as Osman Hussain, was arrested on July 29 in Rome, at the home of his brother, Ramzi, who runs an Ethiopian clothing shop in the capital. He was questioned in Rome on Tuesday by British police. He repeated earlier claims that he had never intended to hurt anyone, but only to carry out a "demonstrative act". He said that the initiative in which he took part was planned quickly in the wake of the July 7 London bombings which killed 52 people and the four suicide bombers themselves.
According to Sonnessa, Hamdi was aware that his backpack contained explosives and nails but still insisted that the intention was only to make a "big bang' and frighten people. "Hamdi and his accomplices wanted to show that it was possible to get past the intense security measures put in
place in London," she said. The idea was allegedly to set off the device and then leave the rucksacks with the bag of nails for police to find, as a demonstration of the inability of authorities to guarantee security.
Sonnessa said on Wednesday that the four incidents on July 21 were not failed bombings, as has been said, because in fact the devices went off noisily but harmlessly, as they were intended to.
By the law of averages, at least one of the backpacks would have exploded and killed people if that was the intention, she added. Hinting that this might back up her argument, she said she was waiting to see a forensic report by British police on the explosive devices contained in the rucksacks. Rome prosecutors have formally requested a report on the explosives carried by Hamdi which should arrive before the extradition hearing on August 17.
"Hamdi is just a boy of 27 who seems younger than he is. Certainly he has made a mistake, but he's not a suicide bomber and now he's afraid to die. He told me this yesterday while he was being questioned."
