Abu Hamza costs US taxpayers thousands to claim benefits of £146
CAGED Abu Hamza has cost US taxpayers thousands of dollars after successfully suing to claim back £146 of his UK benefit money.
The hook-handed cleric sparked fury after he demanded he be paid back $200 (£146) that he was forced to give to America’s crime victims fund following his conviction for hostage-taking and terrorism offences in May 2014.
On Friday, New York Judge Analisa Torres granted his request.
She wrote in answer to his lawsuit: “Granted. The clerk of the court is directed to return the $200.”
Hard-up Hamza – real name Mostafa Kamel Mostafa – had employed New York “super lawyer” Michael Bachrach to retrieve the money.
Prison
The one-eyed hate preacher, serving life in America’s toughest prison in Colorado, was ordered to pay $100 for each of the 11 counts he was convicted on in 2014. Judge Katherine Forrest imposed the “special assessment” on Hamza, which he paid in full.
But after two counts of his conviction – providing and concealing material support and resources to terrorism and conspiracy to do so – were overturned in 2018, the extremist demanded the cash back.
Bachrach, who has represented mob bosses, Guantanamo Bay detainees, “million-dollar madams” and drug cartels, wrote to the courts last week requesting the money.
He asked Judge Torres to “issue an order directing the clerk of the court of the Southern District of New York to return to Mr Mostafa the special assessment previously paid to the court in relation to two counts of conviction that have since been reversed by the second circuit court of appeals”. Late on Friday, she granted his request, seeing the money returned to Hamza.
His attorney asked for it to be paid into “Mr Mostafa’s Bureau of Prisons commissary account” from which he can buy items while locked in ADX Florence, known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”.
Lawyers told the Express the court claim would cost “thousands plus lawyers’ fees of up to $800 per hour for their work”.
At the time of Hamza’s incarceration and when he paid the special assessment, he and his family all claimed government benefits.
The bloodthirsty jihadist, his wife and eight children have reportedly been handed more than £3million in taxpayer handouts.
Milwaukee-based Briton Pat Finn, 45, was disgusted by Hamza’s move.
The dad-of-one said: “It is shameful. How long are those of us who work hard and pay taxes, expected to fund Hamza and his family?
“It’s like he is constantly sticking his finger up to us, well his hook anyway.”
At the time of his conviction, it was revealed the firebrand cleric was living high off the dole, raking in thousands in government benefits and staying in a £1.25million London home for free.
In May this year, the Express revealed how Hamza moved a step closer to freedom in his bid for “compassionate” release to get back to Britain.
Warders at ADX Florence supplied his lawyers with his medical records as part of a legal challenge.
If a court grants his freedom there would be nothing stopping him from returning to the UK.