Terror suspects to face U.S. trial

Aftermath of the U.S. embassy bombing in Kenya

LONDON, England -- An alleged aide to Osama bin Laden and two Egyptians wanted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania have lost a last-ditch battle to avoid extradition from the UK to the United States.

The UK's highest court, the House of Lords, dismissed an appeal by Saudi businessman Khalid al-Fawwaz, 37, and Egyptians Adel Abdel Bary, 41, and Ibrahim Eidarous, 44.

Fawwaz is wanted in the U.S. for allegedly conspiring with bin Laden over the embassy bombings, in which 224 people were killed and thousands wounded. The other two face similar charges.

All three have fought a three-year legal battle against extradition which has run up a legal bill for British taxpayers estimated at £1 million ($1.46 million).

The Law Lords, Britain's final court of appeal, unanimously dismissed their final appeal bid.

The men claimed at a House of Lords hearing in October that the U.S. had no right to seek their extradition because their alleged crimes had not taken place on U.S. soil.

They also said it was unfair they would be unable to challenge the main evidence against them since it came from two unidentified witnesses.

"There is no doubt that conspiracy to murder is a crime within the jurisdiction of the United States and that if the acts were done here it would constitute the crime of conspiracy to murder under English law," said Lord Slyn.

"In my opinion it was not necessary to show that the acts relied on for the conspiracy were all done in the United States of America," he added, dismissing the appeal.

U.S. prosecutors said al Fawwaz, 37, travelled to Kenya in the early 1990s to set up bin Laden's network there, and accused him of helping plan the attacks there and in Tanzania.

He later moved to Britain, set up home in London with his family and established a group called the Advice and Reformation Committee, which was said to be campaigning for peaceful reform in Saudi Arabia.

But the U.S. prosecutors said he was in fact deeply involved in a worldwide conspiracy against Americans with bin Laden, aided by Eidarous and Abdel Bary.

He was arrested a month after the August 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.