Three terror suspects extradited

Three Tunisian men wanted in Italy for alleged terrorist offences have been extradited from Britain, police say.

Habib Ignaoua, 47, Mohamed Khemiri, 54, and Ali Chehidi, 35, were arrested in 2007 on a European Arrest Warrant.

Italian authorities accuse the trio of recruiting young men to join the jihad in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In July, they went to the High Court to try to block their extradition on the grounds they could face torture, but the judges rejected their case.

The Metropolitan Police said Mr Ignaoua, from Finsbury Park, north London, Mr Khemiri, of no fixed address, and Mr Chehidi, from Purley, Surrey, left Britain at 1500 GMT on Saturday.

The Italian authorities say the men were involved in recruiting fighters between 1997 and 1999.

Mr Ignaoua, who was claiming political asylum in the UK, is also accused of belonging to the banned hardline Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat.

The group, which changed its name to al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa this year, claimed responsibility for bombings in Algiers on 11 April which killed 30 people.

All three men deny the charges against them.