I WOULD like to comment on the conditions in which Abu Hamza and others are held in the US while they are being tried.

I am not opposed to the death penalty being carried out if it is proven that innocent life was taken as a direct result of a criminal’s activities, but I am opposed to the authorities acting like torturers.

For example, Second World War criminals were tried and hanged, for revolting crimes against humanity, but the Allies did not in any way deliberately inflict other suffering on the camp commandants and Gestapo leaders they had before them.

In Hamza’s case, he is being held in solitary with deprivation of any human contact, other than speaking to his lawyers whom he is not allowed to see.

Any reader can find out about supermax conditions in the US. These conditions amount to barbaric mental suffering which can be described fairly as torture. In the Second World War, the Allies did not lower themselves to the same level as the Japanese doctors who did unspeakable things to their captives. Neither should we condone barbaric US practices by allowing extradition where supermax conditions are to be expected.

It makes us worse than executioners.

Chris Clayton, Hempland Drive, York.