Syed Talha Ahsan

This has led to accusations from mainstream UK media, human rights NGOs and religious groups of a racist double standard within Conservative Home Secretary Theresa May's application of the law.

"[20] An international campaign led by Talha's brother Hamja Ahsan was formed to halt his extradition to the US and have him tried in the UK on the basis that this is where he was present during the period of the allegation.

This was supported by a wide coalition of figures including Noam Chomsky, Robert Hillary King (Angola Three), A. L. Kennedy, Stop the War, Bruce Kent, Plaid Cymru, his MP and Labour cabinet member Sadiq Khan, Caroline Lucas MP, Gerry Conlon, the Muslim Council of Britain, actor Riz Ahmed, and former extradited Britons David Bermingham and Gary Mulgrew of the NatWest Three.

The family-run campaign continues around issues of solitary confinement and reforming extradition law, with the aim of repatriating Talha to the UK.

[21] Ahsan was a co-defendant with another British citizen Babar Ahmad, in a high-profile case at the European Court of Human Rights, appealing their extraditions to the US.

[22][23] As a result of a UK parliamentary petition raising over 140,000 signatures the case sparked a discussion in the House of Commons among Members of Parliament late in 2011.

[28] On 10 April 2012, the European Court of Human Rights published its landmark ruling that both men could be extradited from Britain to the US to face terrorism charges.

[44] In sum, it alleged that between 1997 and 2004 he, together with Babar Ahmad and other persons known and unknown: (i) conspired to provide material support to terrorists, knowing or intending that such support was to be used in furtherance of a conspiracy to kill, kidnap maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country and or to murder and attempt to murder US nationals abroad; (ii) provided and aided and abetted others to provide material support to terrorists, knowing or intending that such support would be used in furtherance of a conspiracy to kill, kidnap, maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country and or attempt to murder US nationals abroad; and (iii) conspired to kill, kidnap maim or injure persons or damage property in a foreign country.

The US indictment goes on to allege that one of the means used by the co-conspirators to further the alleged criminal acts was an entity known as Azzam Publications, through which they operated a series of pro-jihad websites based in the United States that were specifically designed to incite readers to violent jihad and to provide material support to terrorist related entities including the Taliban, the Chechen Mujahideen and Al Qaeda.

[44] After his extradition was approved by the district court it was sent to the Secretary of State for ratification in 2007 and only then was he granted assurances from the US government that he would not go to Guantanamo Bay nor be treated as an enemy combatant.

Although Syed Talha Ahsan was arrested two years later than Babar Ahmad, their cases were linked (together with four others) in a joint appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against their extradition to the US.

On 10 April 2012 the European Court of Human Rights published its decision to allow the extradition of the five men from Britain to the US to face terrorism charges, in spite of the evidence presented to the Court about the US prison system's treatment of terrorism cases in the United States Penitentiary, Florence ADX, in particular Muslims and psychologically disturbed prisoners, and the likelihood that if convicted the men would be placed under the controversial regime of solitary confinement not used in the UK.

The current UK Prime Minister, David Cameron (Conservative Party) and his Home Secretary Theresa May have welcomed the European Court of Human Rights' decision but the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg (Liberal Democrat party) has expressed concern about the UK/US extradition treaty (2003) and has suggested that extradition cases such as Syed Talha Ahsan should be heard in the UK.

[53] On 6 October 2012, Talha Ahsan pleaded not guilty of conspiracy to support terrorists in Afghanistan and the Russian region of Chechnya in a Connecticut court.

The European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of Syed Talha Ahsan and Babar Ahmad is a highly significant precedent and it has been reported as a step towards making extradition from the UK to the US easier in general.

[63] In addition, Syed Talha Ahsan's lawyer Gareth Peirce has controversially alluded to the apparent role that the Extradition treaty may play in US/UK diplomacy: it is meant to ensure that the law is duly applied rather than being a bartering tool in the 'US/UK special relationship'.

According to his lawyer, Gareth Peirce, this condition would make it extremely difficult or impossible for him to cope with the shocking change to his circumstances that extradition to the US would involve.

This has led to accusations of double standards from mainstream UK media, Human Rights NGOs, Religious Organisations and Racial Equality Groups regarding the Home Secretary Theresa May's selective application of the law.

[4] In July 2011, an event at the Islamic Human Rights Commission took place in London to mark the fifth anniversary of Syed Talha Ahsan's imprisonment with contributions from his lawyer Gareth Peirce and veteran anti-war campaigner Bruce Kent.

[66] On 21 February 2013, Ian Patel of King's College London wrote a detailed piece in the New Statesman on The Impossible Injustice of Talha Ahsan's extradition and detention.

[4] In his article for the Independent on 17 October 2012, Jerome Taylor quoted Boris Johnson exclaiming that "To extradite a man diagnosed with Asperger syndrome to America for trial would have been extraordinarily cruel and inhumane."

[67] Taylor poses the question in his headline 'Why do politicians, celebrities and the media flock to Gary McKinnon's cause but stay silent about the likes of Talha Ahsan from Tooting?

[69] Speakers across the UK tour included Phil Shiner, Salma Yaqoob, Moazzam Begg, David Bermingham, Andy Worthington, Rizwaan Sabir, Tam Dean Burn, Tariq Mehmood, Peter Kallu, Pete Weatherby QC, A. L. Kennedy and Aamer Anwar.