Abu Hamza extradition ruling marks end of era for radical cleric - CNN.com
By Nick Thompson, CNN
September 25, 2012 -- Updated 1545 GMT (2345 HKT)
CNN.com
Abu Hamza has called 9/11 "a towering day" and described Osama bin Laden as "a
good guy and a hero."
London (CNN) -- He once described Britain as a "toilet" -- now, radical Muslim
cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri is to be flushed out of the UK legal system and into
a potential life sentence in America, the end of an era for perhaps London's
most famous anti-Western preacher.
After nearly a decade of legal battles, a European court has ruled that the
one-eyed, hook-handed al-Masri, who was convicted in a British court and jailed
in 2006 for a variety of terror-related crimes, can be extradited to face
terror charges in the U.S.
More: Cleric faces possible life sentence in America
Britain's legal victory marks the end of a protracted battle to send al-Masri
abroad that so exasperated officials that even Queen Elizabeth reportedly spoke
to a UK home secretary about why arresting the cleric was proving so difficult,
according to the BBC.
More: BBC apologizes to queen over Hamza revelation
Born in Egypt in 1958, al-Masri travelled to Britain -- which he described in
his 2006 trial as "like the inside of a toilet" -- to study, before gaining
citizenship through marriage in the 1980s.
A one-time nightclub bouncer in London's Soho district, al-Masri -- also known
as Mustafa Kamal Mustafa -- has said he lost both hands and one eye while
fighting against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He often wore a hook in
place of one hand.
In 1997, al-Masri became the imam of a north London mosque, where his
hate-filled speeches attacking the West began to attract national attention and
followers, including Richard Reid, the so-called "shoe bomber" who attempted to
blow up a Miami-bound passenger airplane three months after the September 11
terrorist attack in 2001.
Al-Masri has called the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center "a towering day
in history" and described former al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden "a good guy
and a hero."
He also described the Columbia space shuttle disaster in 2003 as "punishment
from Allah" because the astronauts were Christian, Hindu and Jewish.
Both non-Muslims and Muslims have condemned his preachings. One former trustee
of the London mosque where al-Masri preached told CNN in 2006: "Abu Hamza's
views have damaged the inter-community relationships and damaged the reputation
of the Muslim community as extremist."
Police raided the mosque in 2003 and, after being banned for preaching there,
al-Masri resorted to leading Friday prayers on the street outside the mosque.
Al-Masri previously denied wrongdoing, saying, "They have no evidence against
me whatsoever apart from me trying basically to open the people's eyes about
certain principles."
The European court's decision to allow Britain to extradite the cleric to the
U.S. stems from its assessment that al-Masri -- and several other terror
suspects the ruling affects -- would not get "ill treatment" in super-maximum
security prisons if extradited to the U.S. and convicted in American courts.
Both U.S. and British officials applauded the court's decision -- and Britain
has pledged to hand over al-Masri to the Americans "as quickly as possible."
Information from CNN Wires and Paula Hancocks was used in this report.
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