Abu Hamza suffering from depression and sleep deprivation, court told Abu Hamza in Trafalgar Square, London, in 2002: his barrister says he is suffering from memory loss and is unfit plead at any trial. Photograph: Pa The Islamist cleric Abu Hamza is suffering from depression and chronic sleep deprivation due to harsh prison conditions, the high court has been told. The 48-year-old, who was detained in Belmarsh jail in south-east London for eight years, was woken every hour of the night in the high-security unit, his barrister, Alun Jones QC said. A medical report drawn up in August recorded that Hamza was suffering from type 2 diabetes and had to shower twice a day because of sweating. The court is considering applications from Hamza and four other terrorist suspects who are seeking to extend injunctions preventing their extradition to the US, where they are wanted on al-Qaida-related charges. Hamza is also suffering from memory loss and is unfit plead at any trial, Jones told the court. He has been kept in an utterly unacceptable conditions for eight years, Jones said. His sleep deprivation is primarily because he is woken every hour by prison officers who turn on the light to check on him. Belmarsh's high-security unit, he added, was the "most restrictive regime in the prison estate" in the UK. Doctors who examined Hamza have requested that he be given an MRI scan to assess whether he has a degenerative medical condition. But one of the judges hearing the case, Sir John Thomas, said: "It could be said that the sooner he stands trial the better for his condition. I don't see how delay can be in the interests of justice. The radical cleric is also said to be feeling "persecuted" by the press. On 21 September, Hamza was moved to Long Lartin prison where the other suspects fighting deportation are being held. Meanwhile, the civil rights group Liberty is seeking to intervene in the high court proceedings against the government and DPP for not allowing another of the suspects, Babar Ahmad, to be prosecuted in the UK. Ahmad is accused of setting up terrorist fundraising websites and has been detained for eight years without charge. The authorities will neither prosecute nor allow the private prosecution attempted by businessman Karl Watkin. Liberty said: "If all or a substantial part of the alleged criminal conduct took place in the UK, a person should face trial here where it is in the interests of justice that they should do so."