Abu Hamza Wants to Return to London Prison

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



Putin Urges Iran to Take ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal with US

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
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Putin Urges Iran to Take ‘Zero Enrichment’ Nuclear Deal with US

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, Friday, July 11, 2025. (Mikhail Metzel, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

The stalled indirect talks between Washington and Tehran were activated on Saturday after reports said Russian President Vladimir Putin stepped in, urging the Iranians to accept a nuclear deal that would not allow uranium enrichment.

Putin has told both US President Donald Trump and Iranian officials that he supports the idea of a nuclear deal in which Iran is unable to enrich uranium, sources familiar with those discussions told Axios.

The website said Russia has been Iran's main diplomatic backer on the nuclear issue for years, while Moscow publicly advocates for Iran's right to enrich.

But, it added, Putin has taken a tougher position in private in the wake of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran.

Two sources said the Russians briefed the Israeli government about Putin's position regarding Iran's uranium enrichment.

Iran has long insisted that it must retain the ability to enrich under any deal.

Putin and other Russian officials have conveyed their support for a “zero enrichment” deal to the Iranians several times of the last few weeks, sources told Axios.

“Putin would support zero enrichment. He encouraged the Iranians to work towards that in order to make negotiations with the Americans more favorable.

The Iranians said they won't consider it,” one European official with direct knowledge of the issue said.

The Russians have made clear in public and private that if a deal is reached, they are willing to remove Iran's highly enriched uranium.

“Russia has said it would then supply Iran with 3.67% uranium for nuclear power and small quantities of 20% enriched uranium for the Tehran research reactor and the production of nuclear isotopes,” the sources told Axios.

But an informed Iranian source dismissed the Axios report. Speaking to Tasnim on Saturday, the source said Iran has not received any message from Putin regarding a zero enrichment nuclear deal with the US.

In Tehran, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will “take a new form to ensure the security of its nuclear facilities.”

He reiterated Iran’s commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), saying: “Iran’s nuclear program has always been peaceful and will remain so,” stressing that Tehran “will continue to be a member of the NPT.”

On its missile program, the minister said Iran will not abandon its military and defense capabilities while it is under constant threats from Israel and the United States.

Khamenei Threatens Washington

In a related development, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei issued a fresh threat to the US, saying American military bases in the region could be struck again at any moment.

“Striking Al Udeid Air Base is not a small incident but a major one that can be repeated,” Khamenei said.

“We are capable of reaching important American sites in the region,” he wrote in a post on X.

Khamenei also enclosed a caricature of Trump in the form of the Statue of Liberty, and title it, “A strong punch... A remarkable event that can be repeated.”

The supreme leader’s statements came while the Pentagon has acknowledged that a ballistic missile Iran fired toward Qatar late last month, in response to the American attack on Iranian nuclear facilities, directly hit Al Udeid base near Doha.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell made the remarks after the AP news agency analyzed satellite images indicating that an Iranian attack on the air base in Qatar that’s key to the US military hit a geodesic dome housing equipment used by the Americans for secure communications.

The Iranian attack on Al Udeid Air Base on June 23 came as a response to the American bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran — and provided Iran a way to retaliate that quickly led to a ceasefire brokered by Trump ending the 12-day Iran-Israel war.

The Iranian attack otherwise did little damage - likely because of the fact that the US evacuated its aircraft from the base, which is home to the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command, before the attack.

Trump also has said that Iran signaled when and how it would retaliate, allowing American and Qatari air defense to be ready for the attack, which briefly disrupted air travel in the Middle East.