London imam found guilty of 11 U.S. charges
NEW YORK — London imam Abu Hamza alMasri was convicted of terrorism charges in New York yesterday, following a four-week trial that shined a spotlight on the preacher’s controversial anti-Western statements.
After deliberating for fewer than two days, a jury of eight men and four women found Abu Hamza, 56, guilty on all 11 counts he faced, handing Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara his second high-profile terrorism conviction in three months.
Abu Hamza could face life in prison when he is sentenced in September.
Prosecutors had charged the one-eyed, handless Abu Hamza with providing a satellite phone and advice to Yemeni militants who kidnapped Western tourists in 1998, an operation that led to the deaths of four hostages.
Abu Hamza also was accused of dispatching two followers to Oregon to establish a militant training facility and sending an associate to Afghanistan to help al-Qaida and the Taliban.
His attorneys said the case relied largely on the incendiary language in his sermons at London’s Finsbury Park mosque, which earned him notoriety as one of Britain’s most prominent radical Islamic voices.
Defense attorney Joshua Dratel said the relatively quick verdict demonstrated that the jurors reacted emotionally to the inflammatory statements rather than sticking to the evidence.
“This is what we feared, that there would be no deliberations at all, essentially,” he said. “Beliefs are not a crime.” He said he plans to appeal the conviction.
But the jury’s foreman, Howard Bailynson, a 44-year-old Xerox employee, told reporters there was “no doubt” that Abu Hamza received a fair trial.
Abu Hamza, who was indicted in the United States in 2004 under his birth name, Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, spent eight years in prison in Britain for inciting violence before his 2012 extradition.
During the trial, Abu Hamza testified that he lost his arms and eye in an accidental explosion in Pakistan 20 years ago, contradicting reports that he was injured fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan.