Abu Hamza Wants to Return to London Prison

Egyptian hardline preacher Abu Hamza. (Reuters)
Egyptian hardline preacher Abu Hamza. (Reuters)
TT

Abu Hamza Wants to Return to London Prison

Egyptian hardline preacher Abu Hamza. (Reuters)
Egyptian hardline preacher Abu Hamza. (Reuters)

Egyptian preacher Mustapha Kamel Mustapha, dubbed Egyptian Abu Hamza, can no longer stand the conditions in US prison and wants to return to Belmarsh British prison.

The former Finsbury Park imam registered an appeal against his detention at the maximum security ADX Florence prison.

The convicted hardline preacher, 59, claims his conditions at the prison violate human rights under Article 3 of the European Convention, which protects people from "inhuman and degrading treatment".

The Sunday Times reported that in October 2015, Abu Hamza was convicted of 11 terrorism offenses and was deported to the US, where is spends 23 hours a day in solitary confinement and is only allowed out of his cell for an hour.

He claims that he is "permitted to one hour per day of recreation time outside of his cell... [and] even during that one-hour recreation, however, [he] is still confined within a cell-sized cage" on his own, according to the newspaper.

Before US prosecutors won their eight-year legal battle to transfer him from the UK in October 2012, Abu Hamza was locked up at Belmarsh, southeast London, where conditions were quite different.

Hamza is a double amputee, blind in one eye, suffers from diabetes, psoriasis and a condition where he sweats excessively and has to shower twice a day.

In his appeal, the preacher argued that he received at Belmarsh daily visits from medical staff, regular doctor visits, and was allowed to mix with other inmates. But, according to the appeal, at the US prison he is subject to regular outbreaks of infections in his hands, which have been increasing in severity.

One of Abu Hamza's lawyers stated: "We strongly believe that the conditions of his confinement violate the expectations of the European Convention on Human Rights and the promises that were made by the US government to the [British and European] courts as part of the extradition process."

The lawyer reiterated that Abu Hamza would go back to Belmarsh in a second if he could.

Asharq Al-Awsat received a letter from Abu Hamza sent to his family two years ago in which he described his confinement conditions in the US prison. He told the family that he is not allowed to see or talk to anyone and they continue to give him canned food.

The preacher was finally granted the permission to speak to his family for 30 minutes once a month, however, he was denied this right recently for failing to submit a urine sample.

Abu Hamza claimed the tube they gave him to provide the sample was very small and he was not able to hold it.

Mustapha Kamel Mustapha, or Abu Hamza al-Masri, was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1958, the son of a naval officer and a primary school headmistress. He graduated from civil engineering college, and in 1979, he entered the UK on a student visa.

In 1980, he was granted UK citizenship after marrying his first wife, a British Muslim convert, the mother of his oldest son, Mohammed Kamel, who was convicted of being part of a bomb plot in Yemen and was imprisoned for three years in 1999.

Abu Hamza later divorced his first wife and remarried in 1984 a woman whom he had met in a Muslim celebration in London.

Over the years, Hamza has given several different reasons for why he had lost his hands and eye including: a road paving project in Pakistan, an explosion while working in a mine in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, during a fight with the Pakistani Mujahideen, and during an accidental bombing while working with Pakistani military in Lahore.



Iran Offers $30,000 Bounty for Killing, Capturing US Soldiers

A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)
A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)
TT

Iran Offers $30,000 Bounty for Killing, Capturing US Soldiers

A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)
A man waves an Iranian flag before a political billboard at Valiasr Square in central Tehran on August 8, 2026. (AFP)

Iran's military announced on Sunday that it was offering a bounty equivalent to $30,000 for killing or capturing US soldiers, with the reward doubled if carried out by a woman.

Army chief Amir Hatami said the plan had been drawn up following "the large number of requests" to participate in the financial support, according to the IRNA state news agency.

There has been no known deployment of US ground forces in Iran during the Middle East war, with the exception of a rescue mission in April for a downed American pilot.

Hatami did not provide any details on where or when the killing or capturing of US soldiers was expected to take place.

"Anyone who kills or captures and hands over an invading American military personnel will receive a reward equivalent to $30,000 or 5 billion tomans from Iran's Army," Hatami said, using an informal unit equivalent to 10,000 Iranian rials.

"Courageous Iranian women who carry out such an action will receive double the reward," he added.

The war between Tehran and Washington began on February 28 after the United States, joined by Israel, attacked Iran. It was followed by an April ceasefire after nearly 40 days of fighting, and a June framework for peace talks that later collapsed.

Iran and the United States have since traded fire sporadically, with fighting mainly centered in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.


Iranian Parliament Advances Bill to Curb Foreign Influence

 A woman is silhouetted against the sun as she checks her cellphone at Revolution square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP)
A woman is silhouetted against the sun as she checks her cellphone at Revolution square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP)
TT

Iranian Parliament Advances Bill to Curb Foreign Influence

 A woman is silhouetted against the sun as she checks her cellphone at Revolution square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP)
A woman is silhouetted against the sun as she checks her cellphone at Revolution square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Saturday, Aug. 15, 2026. (AP)

Iran's parliament approved on Sunday the general principles of a bill that would criminalize interviews and other communications with media deemed hostile to the country, including US or Israeli media and outlets financed by either country, Iran's Shargh newspaper reported.

Osman Salari, a member of parliament's judicial and legal commission, said the individual provisions of the bill, which is aimed at countering foreign intelligence influence, have yet to be debated and approved.

Reports about ‌the bill's ‌details should not yet be considered final, Salari ‌told ⁠the Mizan news ⁠agency.

Under the proposed bill, interviews or participation in discussions with such media would be banned and violations would carry six months to two years in prison.

Interviews with other foreign media would require notification to the intelligence ministry, while contact with foreign embassies, offices of foreign organizations or other non-Iranian institutions without ⁠notification and written permission from the foreign ministry ‌would be punishable by a fine ‌and deprivation of certain social rights.

The proposed legislation would also ‌harden penalties for economic crimes committed under the direction or ‌supervision of foreigners, ban providing information to foreigners without intelligence ministry approval and restrict scientific cooperation with foreign institutions outside an approved list.

It would punish policy or legislative proposals made under the direction of ‌foreign intelligence services if they harm Iran's security or independence, with prison terms of up ⁠to 30 years. ⁠Cases would be heard by Revolutionary Courts.

The bill will be considered article by article in parliament. Once parliament approves the final text, it will have to be reviewed by the Guardian Council before becoming law.

The move is not the first time Iran has criminalized cooperation with foreign entities. A law passed in 2025 after a 12-day war with Israel imposed tougher penalties for alleged cooperation with hostile states.

Iranian photojournalist Yalda Moaiery was sentenced this month to 15 years under that law over allegations that included giving interviews to media deemed hostile and providing photographs to US and Israel-linked organizations.


PM Tusk: Poland to Send Emergency Aircraft to Budapest after Coach Crash

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks during the Polish Armed Forces Day in Gdynia, northern Poland, 15 August 2026. EPA/Andrzej Jackowski POLAND OUT
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks during the Polish Armed Forces Day in Gdynia, northern Poland, 15 August 2026. EPA/Andrzej Jackowski POLAND OUT
TT

PM Tusk: Poland to Send Emergency Aircraft to Budapest after Coach Crash

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks during the Polish Armed Forces Day in Gdynia, northern Poland, 15 August 2026. EPA/Andrzej Jackowski POLAND OUT
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk speaks during the Polish Armed Forces Day in Gdynia, northern Poland, 15 August 2026. EPA/Andrzej Jackowski POLAND OUT

Poland will send an emergency aircraft to Budapest following a coach crash that killed 12 people and left at least 10 critically injured, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Sunday.

"I have made the decision to send a special Polish aircraft to Hungary with representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and medical services," Tusk said on social media. "All the injured will receive the necessary medical and consular assistance," he added.