Radical cleric faces trial
2006-01-09 13:30
London - Radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was scheduled to go on trial on Monday, accused of inciting his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims.
Prosecution and defence lawyers were appearing for legal arguments before jury selection at London's Central Criminal Court.
The trial of Britain's highest-profile Islamic radical was expected to last at least three weeks.
The one-eyed, hook-handed preacher has been in jail since May 2004, when he was arrested on a US extradition warrant.
US authorities have charged him with trying to establish a terrorist training camp in the western state of Oregon, involvement in hostage-taking in Yemen and funding terrorism training in Afghanistan.
But in a move that pre-empted the US extradition bid, he was charged in October 2004 with 16 domestic counts, including 10 of inciting the murder of "a person or persons who did not believe in the Islamic faith".
Four of those charges add: "in particular Jewish people."
He also faces four counts of using threatening or abusive language designed to stir racial hatred, one count of possessing threatening or abusive recordings and one count of possessing a document likely to be useful in terrorism - the Encyclopaedia of the Afghani Jihad.
Al-Masri, 47, has pleaded innocent to all charges. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Under British law, the domestic charges take precedence over the extradition case.
The Egyptian-born cleric - who says he lost his eye and hands while fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s - is the former head preacher at London's Finsbury Park mosque, which has been linked to terrorist suspects including alleged September 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
- AP