Inside the Alcatraz of the Rockies: The supermax prison in Colorado where Abu Hamza could spend the rest of his life

Hamza is expected to be incarcerated there after he was found guilty of a string of terror offences

ADX Florence in Fremont Country houses the most dangerous inmates in the U.S. prison system

Hamza will join Richard Reid, the 'shoe bomber', and September 11 terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui

F ormer hostage kidnapped by Jihadists in Yemen says justice has bee n done after his conviction

However, Hamza is expected to apply within weeks to be moved to a cushy U.S. medical prison


This is where Abu Hamza may get his just deserts.



Standing miles from anywhere, the bleak fortress-like super-prison dubbed the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies' is the place the hate preacher is expected to die behind bars.

ADX Florence in Fremont Country, Colorado, houses the most dangerous inmates in the U.S. prison system and is believed to the world's most secure prison.

Hamza is expected to be handed a life term after his convictions for a string of terror offences. The hook-handed Islamist cleric – who for years spouted evil on the streets of Britain – was convicted by a New York court of 11 charges after a five-week trial.



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Fortress-like: The super-maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado, where Abu Hamza is expected to be held This aerial photo shows the prison in Florence, Colorado. Upper left hand corner is maximum security prison, upper right hand is medium security prison, lower right hand corner is minimum security, lower left hand corner is boot camp The fortress-like super-prison, notoriously dubbed the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies', where a clutch of terror convicts are also ending their days

The firebrand, 56, who was tried under the name Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, had denied helping to organise a hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998 when three Britons were killed. He is currently awaiting sentencing.

However, Hamza is expected to apply within weeks to be moved to a cushy U.S. medical prison serve his life sentence. He wants to be transferred to the Federal Medical Centre in Devens, Massachusetts, where he will have access to a craft room and a music practice room.

He will also be able to take continuing education classes or play hockey - and even study culinary arts.



The application for the move will be put in by Hamza’s lawyers on the grounds that his disability - he has stumps for arms and only one eye - means he needs preferential treatment.

The proper name for the prison in Florence is the United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility. It is currently home to 490 convicted terrorists, gang leaders and neo-Nazis. Many have been transferred from other prisons after killing inmates or prison staff.

They include Richard Reid, the attempted shoe bomber; Zacarias Moussaoui, the so-called 20th 9/11 hijacker; and al-Qaeda terrorists behind the bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993 and the bombing of the US embassies in Africa.

It has been suggested Egyptian-born Hamza may have come across his new neighbours before. He led the Finsbury Park Mosque in London in the 1990s, which was reportedly attended by both Moussaoui and Reid, but denied ever having met them.

Hamza is likely to go to H-unit, home to a number of Islamist terrorists and Robert Hanssen, a FBI agent serving a life sentence for passing secrets to Russia. Some have held hunger strikes.

D-unit houses home-grown terrorists including Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber, and Eric Rodolph, who bombed the Atlanta Olympics.

The Florence Federal Correctional Complex in Florence, Colorado, dubbed the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies'

Senior prison officer Mike Jordan standing in the recreation area of the super-maximum-security federal prison in Florence, Colorado A courtroom sketch shows Abu Hamza (left) as he is found guilty of providing material support to terrorist organizations at the Federal Court house in Lower Manhattan, New York Hamza will join convicted terrorists Richard Reid, the 'shoe bomber', pictured in his police mug shot after his arrest in December 2001 in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and (right) Zacarias Moussaoui, the only person charged in the United States in connection with the September 11 attacks



JUSTICE WAS DONE: FORMER HOSTAGE WELCOME ABU HAMZA CONVICTION Eric Firkins, a chemistry teacher from South Croydon, England A former hostage kidnapped by Jihadists in Yemen said today that hate preacher Abu Hamza's conviction was 'justice' for his role that left four hostages dead.

Eric Firkins was part of a group of 16 western tourists taken at gunpoint 16 years ago.

Three Britons and an Australian died when Yemeni forces rescued the hostages and the New York jury heard the radical preacher at Finsbury Park Mosque had been in contact with the kidnappers.

It is claimed Abu Hamza had been hoping to exchange the hostages for his son, stepson and several other British radicals arrested days earlier in Yemen.

Speaking from his south London home Mr Firkins said: 'I am very pleased justice has been done. Anyone that has done what he has done must be evil.

'I don't want people in our country to tolerate what he has committed, he preached hatred against the English and he did it openly and felt free to carry out acts of terror.

'It's justice. I don't want to judge anyone but I judge the bad acts he has done.'

Laurence Whitehouse, who was among the hostages and whose wife, Margaret, was one of the Britons shot dead, spoke of his relief at the court's decision.

He told the Daily Telegraph: 'This has taken a long time, even though there was evidence of his involvement early on. We could have had less trouble and strife in the world if effective action had been taken against him earlier.'

Better behaved prisoners are granted extra privileges, with the best behaved given five hours of phone calls a month and the right to eat together out of their cells.

The five extradited men will be allowed to see the imam four times a week. The library holds 158 Arabic books and 320 videos and DVDs on Islam. They will have the right to pray in their cells and have prayer beads, rugs and headgear. Inmates can also use a law library for two hours a day.



Following Hamza's conviction, British Prime Minister David Cameron today pledged to 'take more steps' to speed up the deportation of people who pose a threat to his country.



Mr Cameron said it was 'good that he has faced justice' and insisted he would take action to speed up the extradition process if his Conservative Party remains in government next year.

Mr Cameron told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'I think it's good that he has faced justice and justice has been done. I think we should reflect on whether we can extradite faster.

'I think Theresa May, the Home Secretary, did a brilliant job. It took 10 years but Abu Hamza, off to America, and, of course, Abu Qatada, deported to Jordan.

'We have made progress in a way no government before us has made progress and we should be clear that we have got a good domestic record in terms of prosecuting and convicting people who are guilty of terrorist offences here in Britain.'

He added: 'I think speeding up extradition and speeding up deportation... I think we need to look at the avenues of appeal that there are and make sure that those are gone through more quickly, and we have made changes there.

'Obviously, we also need to look, as I've said many times, at the European Convention on Human Rights and the position that we have got to get into where, if someone threatens our country, we should be able to deport them if they have no right to be here and that is absolutely essential that we restore that.