He conspired “to set up an Al-Qaeda-style training camp in Oregon in late 1999.” via British hate preacher goes on trial in New York – Daily News Egypt.
British hate preacher Abu Hamza goes on
trial in New York on Monday, facing the rest of his life behind bars if
found guilty on kidnapping and terror charges that predate the 9/11
attacks.
It is the second high-profile terror trial
to be heard by a Manhattan jury since Osama bin Laden’s son-in-law and
former Al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abu Ghaith was convicted on March 26.
Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, better known in
Britain as Abu Hamza Al-Masri, is blind in one eye and lost both arms,
blown off above the elbow, in an explosion in Afghanistan years ago.
His trial will begin with jury selection on Monday and is the culmination of a 10-year legal battle.
On its second day, Tuesday, he will celebrate his 56th birthday.
Abu Hamza was first indicted in the United
States in 2004 and served eight years in prison in Britain before
losing his last appeal in the European Court of Human Rights against
extradition.
In the US, authorities lost no time removing his trademark prosthetic hook that he wore in the place of one hand.
He is charged on 11 counts, over the 1998
kidnapping in Yemen of 16 Western tourists, of whom four were killed,
and of conspiring to set up an Al-Qaeda-style training camp in Oregon in
late 1999.
In the 1998 hostage-taking, he is accused
of providing the kidnappers with a satellite phone, acting as an
intermediary and dispensing advice by telephone from home.
Two of the kidnapped tourists were Americans.
He is also accused of providing material
support to Al-Qaeda, and just days before the 9/11 attacks he allegedly
discussed plans to open a computer lab for the Taliban in Afghanistan.
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