tinyurl.com/b525g -> nytimes.com/2006/02/07/international/europe/07cnd-cleric.html?hp&ex=1139374800&en=4436d042ee605c15&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Skip to next paragraph Matt Dunham/Reuters Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri was found guilty today of 11 counts including inciting murder. The cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri, the former imam at the Finsbury Park mosque, in North London, dropped into his seat after the first guilty count was read out at the City's Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey. After the remaining verdicts were announced, the judge imposed the sentence on Mr Hamza, 47. The judge, Anthony Hughes, told Mr Hamza that he had "created an atmosphere" in which murder was perceived by some as "not only a legitimate course but a moral and religious duty in pursuit of perceived justice." But the judge also noted: "No one can now say what damage your words may have caused. No one can say whether your audience, present or wider, acted on your words." Nontheless, Justice Hughes said, Mr Hamza's messages had caused "real danger to the lives of innocent people in different parts of the world." Among the charges that he was convicted of were inciting racial hatred and possessing a 10-volume "Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad," which prosecutors called "a blueprint for terrorism." The manual included instructions on how to make explosives and identified Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower as potential terrorist targets. The jury of seven men and five women, who reached their decision in their third day of deliberations, also acquitted Mr Hamza of four charges. Mr Hamza is the best-known British Islamic leader to face charges here since the terror attacks in the United States on Sept. The Egyptian-born Mr Hamza has become an iconic figure of Islamic hatred in Britain. Hook" because of the hooks that he uses in places of his hands. Mr Hamza was arrested by the police here in May 2004, one day after the United States requested his extradition to face trial in New York on charges of hostage-taking and conspiracy in connection with a 1998 attack on 16 tourists in Yemen, including two Americans. The British authorities then filed their own charges against him in October 2004, a move that halted the extradition efforts of the United States. According to British law, domestic criminal charges take precedence over an extradition request. The seven-year sentence means that Mr Hamza will probably serve some three and a half years in prison. Under British law, he will not be eligible for extradition until he has completed his sentence here. Mr Hamza's defense lawyer, Edward Fitzgerald, said his client would "strenuously contest" extradition to the United States. Another of Mr Hamza's lawyers, Muddassar Arani, said her client would appeal the conviction. "Abu Hamza considers himself to be a prisoner of faith," she said outside the courtroom. Mr Hamza's mosque, the North London Central Mosque, in Finsbury Park, was raided by the police in January 2003 and then closed. During the raid, the police said, they found "terrorist paraphernalia," including nuclear, biological and chemical protective suits, blank firing weapons, a stun gun and a CS canister. Police officials said today that they suspected that the material had been used in terror training camps in Britain. In the late 1990's, Mr Hamza and the Finsbury Park mosque first gained notoriety through his firebrand Friday sermons, delivered to dozens of people on the sidewalk in front of the mosque.
Zacarias Moussaoui, who is the only person to have been brought to trial in connection with the Sept. Mr Moussaoui, a French citizen of Moroccan heritage, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, and jury selection in the sentencing phase of his trial began this week in Virginia. The London mosque was also attended by two young Britons who became suicide bombers in Israel, and by Kamel Bourgass, who was convicted here last year in a conspiracy to launch chemical attacks with the poison ricin. A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said today that there was no evidence to directly link Mr Hamza to those acts. But the official added: "We don't think it's a coincidence. Many, many investigations into extremist networks and terrorist activity here found themselves with links or connections to the mosque during that period."
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