Britain’s appeal court ruled on Wednesday that a man accused of being part of a group that helped the Sept. 11 attackers should be extradited to Spain.Tunisian-born Hedi Ben Youseff Boudhiba, 45, is alleged to have helped provide money and false documents for al-Qaida. “I would conclude that, even though it may turn out that the appellant is of low intelligence and might be unfit to stand trial, it is not unjust or oppressive to extradite him to Spain,” Lady Justice Smith said at the court.
Boudhiba is alleged to have traveled from Hamburg to Istanbul on Sept. 3, 2001 with a man named Ahmed Taleb, a member of the Hamburg cell to which three of the Sept. 11 pilots, including plot leader Mohammed Atta, belonged. Spain’s top terrorism investigator, Judge Baltasar Garzon, has also linked Boudhiba, known by the alias “Fathi”, to a network which plotted to use the deadly toxin ricin in London in January 2003.
Boudhiba was arrested in August 2004 as he attempted to board a flight to Barcelona from Liverpool.
In June last year, a judge at LondonÂ’s Bow Street Magistrates Court ruled that he could be extradited to Spain, where he is wanted on terrorism charges. But he challenged the extradition ruling on mental health grounds.