Cleric’s prosthetic arms deemed a security threat
NEWYORK— Every night, while an Egyptian Islamic preacher awaits trial on terrorism charges, jailers confiscate items he carries with him during the day that they consider to be weapons— his prosthetic arms, including one with a metal hook.
It’s a security precaution that comes with a price. ForMustafa Kamel Mustafa, it means being left for hours helpless with tasks others take for granted, such as dressing or eating.
For taxpayers, it means paying more than $ 15,000 to outfitMustafa with a new set of prosthetic arms with rounded fingers that can’t be used as weapons.
Mustafa, 54, widely known by the name Abu Hamza al- Masri, was extradited to the U. S. from Britain in early October. He faces charges of conspiring with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon. He’s also accused of helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jeremy Schneider, the lawyer who represented Mustafa in court this past week, complained outside court that the daily removal of his client’s arms is a problem.
“He has use of them for a certain part of the day but not long enough to allow him to function the way he should function,” Schneider said. “As you can well imagine, he’s not happy he’s in a situation like this.”
It’s unclear howMustafa copes without his fake limbs. He has appeared in court handless and helpless, the rounded ends of his arms— both cut off shortly past the elbows— in plain sight.
Officials at theMetropolitan Correctional Center say safety is their top priority.
Traci Billingsley, a U. S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman, said she could not provide specific information about individual inmates but “if an inmate arrives at any of our facilities with a prosthetic that we believe could pose a danger, it would not be permitted inside.”
Similarly, the U. S. Marshals Service, which transportsMustafa to and from court, does not allow him to wear the hook while in their custody.
Mustafa is expected to be outfitted with a new prosthetic in the shape of a hand at taxpayers’ expense. Such prosthetics can cost between $ 15,000 and $ 100,000, said John Billock, head of the Orthotics & Prosthetics Rehabilitation Engineering Centre inWarren, Ohio.
Mustafa, who fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, lost his arms to explosives. He is also missing an eye.
In the 1990s his mosque in London became a training ground for extremist Islamists, including Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and failed “shoe bomber” Richard Reid. He had been jailed since 2004 in Britain on separate charges.