"They are making another Osama bin Laden out of me," said Oussama Kassir, 40, at his first extradition hearing July 19 at Prague City Court.

U.S. authorities have charged Kassir, a Swede of Lebanese descent, with conspiracy aimed at providing material support to terrorists.

He is not wanted in Sweden or the Czech Republic. Czech courts are not deciding his guilt or innocence, but whether the evidence in his case falls within an extradition treaty the United States and the Czech Republic signed in 1925.

The hearing, which has been postponed indefinitely, was moved from Pankrác prison because Kassir feared if the proceeding took place there it would automatically make him look like a criminal, Umar Switat, his lawyer, said.

Leena Jaanson, first secretary of the Swedish Embassy in Prague, said Sweden is doing its best to assist Kassir, who is a Swedish citizen and has lived in Stockholm since 1985.

"We visit him every week and bring him newspapers and such," Jaanson said. "The rest is out of our hands. This is between the Czech Republic and the United States."

Kassir was arrested at Ruzyně Airport last December during a layover from Stockholm to Beirut on arrest warrants from both the United States and Interpol.

The United States says that Kassir participated in setting up al-Qaida training camps in Bly, Oregon, in 1999 because Oregon's terrain was comparable to Afghanistan's.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said Kassir would not face the death penalty if convicted in the United States. He could face the life sentence.

Sweden refused to hand over Kassir because governments typically do not agree to the extradition of their own citizens.

The original extradition treaty between the United States and Czechoslovakia did not classify supporting terrorism as a crime for which countries must agree to extradition. The treaty had no such distinction until this May, when the United States and the Czech Republic signed an addendum to the treaty, adding a convention on mutual legal assistance that contains some revisions demanded by the European Union, such as joint investigation teams.

Although some experts say the Kassir case might have influenced the addendum, the U.S. Embassy in Prague told The Prague Post there is no relation between the case and the addendum.

"The original extradition treaty was archaic," said Jan Krč, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy.

A judge at Prague City Court cited the case's "complexity" in postponing the hearing.

Krč said the United States is not pushing the Czech court to deliver a ruling quickly. "We realize this must properly go through the Czech legal system," he said. "We are not trying to influence the court."

During the first hearing, Kassir appeared charismatic and in good spirits as he sat on the bench next to his interpreter, chatting with him in Arabic. He kept smiling at his brother, the only familiar face in the audience of virtually all journalists.