Cleric Hamza charged with urging followers to kill Jews
The charges mean that a US attempt to extradite him has been put on hold.
Abu Hamza, who lost an eye and both hands in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces, is wanted by the US on 11 charges. A five-day extradition hearing had been due to start yesterday.
The British case, however, takes precedence and tight legal restrictions mean details of the US charges could not be given.
The cleric, a former nightclub security guard who has preached in support of Osama bin Laden and the September 11 attacks, faces 10 charges of using public meetings to incite the killing of non-Muslims. Four charges say he urged the killing of Jews.
He is also accused of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to stir up racial hatred, one charge of possessing threatening, abusive or insulting sound recordings and one charge of possessing a “terrorist” document.
Abu Hamza was already in a top security jail after being arrested in May on a US extradition warrant.
But in August, Britain launched a probe to see whether it could mount its own case against him.
Appearing at Belmarsh Magistrates’ Court in London yesterday, Egyptian-born Abu Hamza, who was flanked by four police officers and without his steel hook on his right arm, nodded when asked to confirm his name.
He was remanded in custody until a hearing the Old Bailey on October 26.
The charges against Abu Hamza have set the stage for one of Britain’s highest-profile cases since the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
He was stripped of his British citizenship last year and he was banned from speaking at his Finsbury Park mosque in north London, although he continued to preach in the road outside until his arrest.
Last year, Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, a former supporter of bin Laden, was jailed for seven years in Britain for urging his followers to kill non-believers.
