Islam Times - Dutch court halts extradition of al-Qaeda suspect to US

Islam Times - A Dutch court has blocked the extradition to the United States, of a Dutch-Pakistani Al-Qaeda suspect, saying the hand-over will not take place until Washington guarantees the same treatment for his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as in the Netherlands.

The Friday ruling by the Hague judge states that before a guarantee is given by Washington, Dutch authorities are prohibited to extradite Sabir Khan, 26, to the United States, where he is wanted in connection with a conspiracy to attack US military personnel in Afghanistan.

The five charges against him include an alleged suicide bombing at an American military base in Afghanistan’s eastern Kunar province on September 23, 2010, which has not been proven to have ever taken place.

A previous ruling in December 2012 by Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten also demanded a treatment guarantee by the United States before Khan could be handed over.

His lawyers say that Khan’s PTSD is a result of torture in a Pakistani jail and that he allegedly also suffers from depression, which he has received so-called eye movement desensitization treatment (EMDR), a procedure that is not performed in American prisons.

In February, a Dutch court ruled to allow the extradition after rejecting his lawyers’ previous arguments that the United States complicit in his torture and that his rights would be violated if he would be taken to an American jail.

His lawyers filed a second urgent court order, which was approved Friday as the ruling demanded was again a guarantee for his EMDR treatment.

Khan was taken into custody on September 23, 2010 in a raid on the western Pakistani city of Quetta and was flown to the Netherlands in April 2011.

Two months after his arrival to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport American officials filed a formal request for his extradition.