London:
Radical Islamist preacher Abu Hamza should not be extradited from Britain to the United States because he requires a brain scan to establish if he has a "degenerative" condition, his lawyer said on Wednesday.
The Egyptian-born cleric and four other terror suspects are seeking injunctions to prevent their removal to the United States after Europe's top rights court gave its green light last week.
Mr Hamza's lawyer Alun Jones told the High Court in London he was making an application "pending the obtaining of an MRI brain scan which has been recommended by two doctors".
The former imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, who has been in prison in Britain for eight years, has "at least mild clinical depression" and could have an underlying neurological condition, Mr Jones said.
The depression has been caused in part by "chronic sleep deprivation which he suffered because of the required security checks" during the night at the top-security Belmarsh prison in London.
Mr Jones described the neurological condition as potentially "degenerative", adding: "He is unfit to plead because he is unable to follow legal proceedings."
But judge John Thomas said "the risk of a degenerative condition can only strengthen the case for extradition", because Abu Hamza should go on trial and plead as soon as possible before his condition worsens.
Abu Hamza, 54, also suffers from repeated infections of the stumps of his amputated forearms and sweats excessively, requiring him to change clothes twice a day, the lawyer said.
He was moved from Belmarsh to another high-security prison, Long Lartin in central England, on September 20, the day before the European Court of Human Rights approved his extradition to the United States.
He has been indicted in the United States on charges including setting up an Al Qaeda-style training camp for militants in the northwestern US state of Oregon.
He has also been charged with criminal conduct related to the taking of 16 hostages in Yemen in 1998 and with advocating violent jihad in Afghanistan in 2001.