British jury convicts radical cleric

LONDON -- A jury on Tuesday convicted Britain's most prominent radical Muslim cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri, of 11 charges of soliciting murder and racial hatred for using his sermons to encourage his followers to murder non-Muslims.

Al-Masri, 47, is the best-known Islamic leader to face charges in a courtroom since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He was the imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in North London, which became a magnet for militants, including Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, and Zacarias Moussaoui, now being tried in the United States in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.

Al-Masri is also wanted in the United States on charges of hostage-taking and conspiracy in connection with an attack in Yemen in 1998 on 16 tourists, including two Americans.

The judge, Anthony Hughes, sentenced al-Masri to seven years in jail, saying that he had "created an atmosphere" in which murder was perceived by some as "not only a legitimate course but a moral and religious duty in pursuit of perceived justice." Al-Masri was also convicted of inciting racial hatred and possessing a 10-volume "Encyclopedia of the Afghani Jihad," which prosecutors called "a blueprint for terrorism." The manual included instructions on how to make explosives and identified Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower as potential terrorist targets.

The charges against al-Masri made no reference to specific acts of violence committed by specific people.

A British police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Tuesday that there was no evidence to directly link al- Masri to specific terrorist acts by those who attended sermons at the mosque, such as Reid and al-Moussaoui -- two Britons who later became suicide bombers in Israel,, and Kamel Bourgass, who was convicted here last year of conspiracy to launch chemical attacks. But the official added: "We don't think it's a coincidence. Many, many investigations into extremist networks and terrorist activity here found themselves with links or connections to the mosque during that period."

During the four-week trial, prosecutors used al-Masri's own words against him, playing nine video recordings of his sermons that police had seized from his home in 2004. In all, the police recovered more than 2,700 audiotapes and 570 videotapes.

Copyright C 2006 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.