Cleric in last-ditch extradition appeal over incident which killed Durham academic

The hook-handed, Egyptianborn preacher is wanted in the US charged with 11 counts of criminal conduct including a link with the kidnap of 16 westerners in Yemen in December 1998.

Among four killed in an ensuing gun battle was Dr Peter Rowe, a 60-year-old maths lecturer at Durham University.

His wife, Claire Marston, then an accountancy lecturer at Northumbria University, was badly wounded. She later recovered and worked at Durham Business School.

Dr Rowe, who was born in Canada, had worked for Durham University for 34 years and was buried in the city. An experienced traveller, he had visited Yemen many times.

His inquest heard that Dr Rowe and Ruth Williamson, a 34-year-old NHS worker from Edinburgh, were shot dead by the hostage-takers as they stood with their arms in the air.

Two others, Andrew Thirsk, 35, from Sydney, Australia, and Margaret Whitehouse, 52, a teacher from Hampshire, were mistakenly killed by Yemeni soldiers trying to rescue them.

Hamza, who was jailed for seven years for soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred, has been fighting extradition since 2004.

It seemed he had lost his long legal battle last week, when the European Court of Human Rights ruled that extradition would not breach his human rights.

However, Hamza and another suspect, Khaled Al-Fawwaz, are now seeking injunctions against extradition from the High Court. The case is expected to be heard todayalong with that of terror suspect Babar Ahmad, whose legal bid was confirmed yesterday.

Hamza and Al-Fawwaz have already been granted interim injunctions preventing their removal pending today’s hearing.

Professor Marston, now at Herriot Watt University, in Edinburgh, declined to comment.

The US has also accused Hamza of advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001 and conspiring to establish a jihad training camp in Oregon between June 2000 and December 2001.