US to try mentally ill British man in terror trial

A court in the US is set to try a mentally ill British man on charges of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon State.

US District Judge Katherine Forrest set the trial date of Haroon Aswatfor for June 1 at a brief hearing on Monday.

US prosecutors have accused the 40-year-old defendant of trying to set up an al-Qaeda training camp in the remote hamlet of Bly in 1999 to train militants seeking to fight in Afghanistan.

Aswat has also been charged with conspiring with radical British preacher Abu Hamza, who was convicted in New York earlier this year on 11 kidnapping and terrorism charges.

Aswat, who pleaded not guilty to four terrorism charges after his extradition from Britain in October, faces up to 35 years in prison if convicted.

His lawyer says Aswat takes anti-psychotic and antidepressant drugs daily. He has been treated for paranoid schizophrenia since 2008.

The British national was arrested in Zambia in July 2005.