Terror suspects plead not guilty

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NEW YORK, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Babar Ahmed and Syed Talha Ahsan, who were extradited to the United States Friday, pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges in New Haven, Conn., Saturday.

Ahmed, 38, and Ahsan, 34, are charged with creating and operating websites under the name Azzam Publications that helped raise money and material support for terror groups around the world, The Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported.

They were extradited to the United States from Britain Friday, along with Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, Khaled al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary -- who were being held Saturday in a New York jail and were scheduled to be arraigned Sunday in U.S. District Court, CNN reported.

The men departed on two planes from a British military base hours after a judge said they could be extradited "immediately."

Al-Masri faces 11 charges, including conspiracy, in connection with the kidnapping of 16 Westerners in Yemen in 1998 and conspiring to establish a jihad training camp in Oregon in 1999.

Fawwaz and Bary are alleged to have been associates of al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden in London during the 1990s.

Al-Masri, jailed for seven years for soliciting to murder and inciting racial hatred, had been fighting extradition since 2004. Ahmed had been held in a British prison without trial for eight years.