Muslim Cleric Gets 7 Years In Jail

A judge sentenced radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to seven years in prison on Tuesday for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims while leading a mosque linked to a number of terrorist suspects.

Judge Anthony Hughes told the former imam of London's Finsbury Park mosque that he helped to persuade his followers that they had a "moral and religious duty" to kill. The mosque was attended by both Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.

"You used your authority to legitimize anger and to encourage your audiences to believe that it gave rise to a duty to murder," Hughes told al-Masri.

A jury earlier Tuesday convicted al-Masri on 11 of 15 counts, including incitement to murder, fomenting racial hatred, possessing a terrorist document and possessing abusive recordings. He had faced a maximum of life in prison.

Hughes sentenced al-Masri to seven years on the most serious charge of soliciting murder, and allowed him to serve his sentences on the other charges concurrently.

A supporter in the public gallery shouted "God Bless You Sheik Hamza" as the cleric was led out of the courtroom. Others shouted to him in Arabic.

The trial, which began Jan. 11, also was closely watched in Washington because the Egyptian-born firebrand cleric was arrested after U.S. authorities charged him on an 11-count indictment with trying to establish a terrorist training camp in the state of Oregon, conspiring to take hostages in Yemen and facilitating terror training in Afghanistan.

Under British law, the domestic charges took precedence over the extradition case, but al-Masri could now be sent to the United States for prosecution there if U.S. authorities request it.

In his trial at London's Central Criminal Court, al-Masri, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, faced nine charges of soliciting the murder of others, "namely a person or persons who did not believe in the Islamic faith." Three of the charges add: "in particular Jewish people."

He also faced 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 "Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad."

During the trial, al-Masri, who pleaded innocent, sat in the dock of the wood-paneled courtroom flanked by guards and listened intently to the proceedings.

The cleric has one eye and hooks for hands, which he says were lost fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan.

Close media coverage of the preacher has made him one of Britain's best-known Muslim radicals. He was head preacher at the Finsbury mosque from the late 1990s until 2003, when he was ousted by the community's leaders.

During the trial, al-Masri, who has called the Sept. 11 attacks a Jewish plot and the invasion of Iraq a war on Islam, took the stand and denied any involvement in violence. He said he is only a spokesman for political causes.

But prosecutor David Perry told the jury that al-Masri called Jews "blasphemous, traitors and dirty" and said their behavior was "why Hitler was sent into the world."

Edward Fitzgerald, al-Masri's defense lawyer, told jurors that although some of what the radical preacher had said was offensive and "a bit over the top," he was not "intending to incite anybody to do anything specific."

During the trial, al-Masri denied that he called for attacks on prominent targets such as London's Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, but said he condoned suicide bombings in some cases. He said the case against him was politically motivated.

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, the government's chief legal adviser, welcomed the verdict, saying that while free speech was important, "encouraging murder and inciting hatred against others because of their race will never be tolerated."

But a Muslim leader said the verdict would trouble some in the Muslim community.

"This is creating an environment that can only further alienate the Muslim community," said Massoud Shadjareh, chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission.