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.



Fleet of 10 Japan-related Ships Exit Hormuz, Data Shows

Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
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Fleet of 10 Japan-related Ships Exit Hormuz, Data Shows

Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)
Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background and a fisherman nearby, in the Strait of Hormuz off Bandar Abbas, Iran, Tuesday, June 30, 2026. (Amirhosein Khorgooi/ISNA via AP)

A fleet of 10 Japan-linked vessels was exiting the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, shipping data on LSEG showed, after the ships were stranded in the Gulf for months because ‌of the ‌Iran war, Reuters reported.

The Japan-linked ships ‌include ⁠six very large crude ⁠carriers loaded with 12 million barrels of Middle Eastern crude, two chemical tankers, a vehicle carrier and a container ship, the data showed.

Most ‌of the vessels are managed by ‌Japanese shipper Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL) which had said it would prioritize the safety of its seafarers, cargo and vessels when traversing the ‌strait.

Mitsui OSK declined to comment.


As Venezuela Quake Deaths Pass 3,000, Attention Turns to Mourning, Burials

At La Esperanza cemetery in La Guaira, gravediggers buried more than 150 bodies still unidentified since the earthquakes. Miguel MEDINA / AFP
At La Esperanza cemetery in La Guaira, gravediggers buried more than 150 bodies still unidentified since the earthquakes. Miguel MEDINA / AFP
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As Venezuela Quake Deaths Pass 3,000, Attention Turns to Mourning, Burials

At La Esperanza cemetery in La Guaira, gravediggers buried more than 150 bodies still unidentified since the earthquakes. Miguel MEDINA / AFP
At La Esperanza cemetery in La Guaira, gravediggers buried more than 150 bodies still unidentified since the earthquakes. Miguel MEDINA / AFP

Deaths from Venezuela's devastating twin earthquakes rose to at least 3,342 on Sunday as officials began to bury dozens of bodies left unidentified 11 days after the disaster.

The June 24 double shocks, one of Latin America's worst quake disasters, toppled scores of buildings in the La Guaira coastal area north of Caracas and left thousands of people missing, AFP said.

As international rescue teams packed up and ended attempts to find survivors, attention shifted to mourning those lost and burying the remains that families have recovered from the ruins.

In a secluded area of La Esperanza cemetery in La Guaira, gravediggers buried more than 150 bodies still unidentified since the earthquakes, AFP journalists saw.

A line of simple white crosses with small bouquets at their foot marked a long row of individual graves. Each one had the same date of death: June 24, 2026.

Two excavators were working to dig more graves in the light brown earth.

"We are first and foremost overcome with grief," said local resident Eli Zavala, who was helping with the burials.

"We started here on July 25th, the very next day, to do all the work...so that all those people could have dignified burials."

According to updated official figures on Sunday, at least 3,342 people died and another 16,700 were injured.

With nearly 200 buildings totally collapsed, most of them in La Guaira, more than 17,000 people have been left homeless and are sleeping in shelters and temporary camps.

The government has not given any figure for those still missing, but the UN estimates that as many as 50,000 people may still be unaccounted for after the shocks.

Many families are still trying to search for relatives in the rubble.

"I've lost track of the days. You lose your mind, but I'm not leaving here because I know he's there," said Zuly, looking for her son in Catia la Mar district.

She now sleeps in a plaza near where he worked.

"I found his motorcycle; I found his helmet. He's there, God willing, alive. If not, at least I can find him, see him...I'm not leaving here without my son."

'No social unrest'

Even before the quakes, Venezuela had been struggling with economic crisis and political upheaval that left infrastructure and health services depleted.

The UN estimates the quakes caused $6.7 billion in damage - equivalent to six percent of Venezuela's GDP.

The damaged international airport serving Caracas is still closed to commercial flights.

Soon after the quakes, many Venezuelans complained they were left alone to dig for families in the ruins and criticized the government's response until international teams arrived.

Interim President Delcy Rodriguez has defended the government reaction, saying thousands of public officials and rescue teams were dispatched.

On Sunday, she dismissed concerns about upheaval over the quakes.

"There will be no social unrest here, what we have here is deep social solidarity," Rodriguez said during a military ceremony marking the country's independence day.

Across Caracas and La Guaira, many were focused instead on Sunday services in churches to remember those lost and still missing.

On the campus of Venezuela Central University in Caracas, dozens of people gathered around a large Venezuela flag surrounded by candles for a vigil.

"I've met with couples who have lost both their children, or two of their three. It's very painful," Father Rafael Troconis told AFP in La Guaira.

"You try to offer support as much as you can. You want to be close to those who are suffering. You notice a lot of sadness and despair."


China’s Nanning on Top Alert as Typhoon Maysak Triggers Reservoir Breach

Floodwater flows down the side of a ramp at a construction site, amid heavy rain brought by Typhoon Maysak, in Guigang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, in this still image obtained from social media video. (Social Media/via Reuters)
Floodwater flows down the side of a ramp at a construction site, amid heavy rain brought by Typhoon Maysak, in Guigang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, in this still image obtained from social media video. (Social Media/via Reuters)
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China’s Nanning on Top Alert as Typhoon Maysak Triggers Reservoir Breach

Floodwater flows down the side of a ramp at a construction site, amid heavy rain brought by Typhoon Maysak, in Guigang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, in this still image obtained from social media video. (Social Media/via Reuters)
Floodwater flows down the side of a ramp at a construction site, amid heavy rain brought by Typhoon Maysak, in Guigang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China, in this still image obtained from social media video. (Social Media/via Reuters)

Nanning, capital of China's southwestern Guangxi region, raised its flood control response to the highest level as rivers and reservoirs swelled with the passage of Typhoon Maysak, Chinese state media said on Monday.

Authorities in ‌Nanning, a ‌city of nearly 9 ‌million ⁠people, raised the flood ⁠control emergency response level to I from III due to "extremely heavy rain", China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

So far, one breach has been reported at a medium-sized ⁠reservoir in Nanning's Hengzhou, and ‌people in ‌the area were being evacuated, state-run ‌Xinhua news agency reported, citing ‌local authorities.

Maysak made landfall in the southern island province of Hainan on Friday, the first tropical cyclone to ‌reach the Chinese mainland this year.

The storm made its ⁠second ⁠landfall on Sunday in Vietnam, which shares a border with Guangxi.

Maysak is expected to weaken further as it moves inland, but remnants of the storm and seasonal southwestern rains will continue to bring heavy rainfall to Guangxi, Guizhou, Hunan, and other areas, according to Chinese meteorologists.