Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza has been found guilty by a New York court of supporting terrorism. He was accused of conspiring to aid terrorist organisations.
The court heard the 56-year-old aided the kidnappers of 16 tourists in Yemen in 1998 and attempted to build a terror training camp in Oregon in the US.
The cleric, who was extradited from the UK in 2012 after an eight-year legal battle, denied all the charges. He now faces a possible life sentence.
He showed little emotion in court as the verdict was read out, only answering “yes” when his lawyer asked if he was OK.
Abu Hamza came to prominence in the UK for his fiery sermons outside Finsbury Park mosque; in one he praised the 11 September hijackers.
He was extradited after having been jailed for seven years in the UK for inciting murder and race hate.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bhara: “Abu Hamza…attempted to portray himself as a preacher of faith but he was, instead, a trainer of terrorists”
“Once again our civilian system of justice has proven itself up to the task of trying an accused terrorist and arriving at a fair and just and swift result.”
Reacting to the verdict, Home Secretary Theresa May said: “I am pleased that Abu Hamza has finally faced justice. He used every opportunity, over many years, to frustrate and delay the extradition process.”
‘Religious war’
Abu Hamza was arrested in May 2004 on a US arrest warrant.
The 11 charges against him included allegations that he arranged satellite communications for a group of kidnappers in Yemen who carried out a deadly attack in which four hostages were killed.
He was eventually also found guilty of conspiring in 1999-2000 to establish an al-Qaeda training camp in Bly, Oregon, among other acts.
He was convicted of various crimes including hostage taking, conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, and abetting religious war in Afghanistan.
His defence team said he would appeal, claiming that too much weight had been given to comments he had made on unrelated matters.
“Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, 9/11, World Trade Centre, USS Cole – all those things which our client was not charged with specifically, they played much more of a role than we believe it should have,” Jeremy Schneider said outside court.
Born Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, Abu Hamza al-Masri’s came to Britain from Egypt in 1979. Before gaining notoriety as an Islamist, he had worked at a strip club in London’s Soho.
He said he lost an eye and both his hands – not, as he had previously claimed, from fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan – but during an accident in Pakistan when liquid explosives intended for use in a road construction project went off by mistake.
It was after this that he began wearing a hook in place of his hands which, along with his missing eye, made him a distinctive figure among British Islamists.
The BBC’s security correspondent Frank Gardner said he was ousted from Finsbury Park mosque where he had been an “extremist imam” but was allowed to continue preaching.
His defence claimed in the trial that he had assisted MI5 “to keep the streets of London safe” but the prosecution portrayed him as a terrorism boss, recruiting and despatching young men on missions around the world.
They said the calm figure who had appeared during the trial was a fraud.
He is due to be sentenced on 9 September.
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