UK cleric jailed for seven years

The British Muslim cleric whose London mosque was at the centre of some of the most important terrorism cases of the last decade was sentenced to seven years in jail yesterday for inciting murder of Jews and unbelievers.

Egyptian-born Abu Hamza al-Masri, 47, preached at the Finsbury Park mosque where convicted "shoebomber" Richard Reid and September 11 plotter Zacarais Moussaoui worshipped.

"He was directly and deliberately stirring up hatred against Jewish people and encouraging murder of those he referred to as non-believers," Britain's Crown Prosecution Service said.

"Not only did he repeatedly advocate that Muslims should kill non-believers, he set out to persuade his listeners that it was part of their religious duty to do so," it said.

Hamza was convicted on 11 counts including soliciting murder, stirring up racial hatred and possessing a training manual "of use to terrorists". The judge ordered him to serve all 11 sentences concurrently, the longest of which was seven years.

His lawyer, Muddassar Arani, said Hamza would appeal.

"He feels that he is a prisoner of faith and this is a slow martyrdom for him," she told reporters.

Although British police never linked Hamza directly to any specific plot, they long said his mosque acted as a base for militants. British authorities previously tried to revoke his citizenship, but for years brought no criminal case against him.

His conviction comes as the British government is placing more emphasis on cracking down on activities such as glorifying terrorism, a trend that has intensified since four suicide bombers killed 52 commuters in London last year.

"Free speech is important in our democratic and multi-faith society but encouraging murder and inciting hatred against others because of their race will never be tolerated," said the government's top lawyer, Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith.

Prime Minister Tony Blair's office said the conviction justified the decision to prosecute. Jewish groups said the jail term was too short for offences that could have carried life.

"The sentence is disappointingly low given the gravity of the offences and the circles in which Abu Hamza has influence," said Mark Gardner, spokesman for the Community Security Trust, a group that fights anti-Semitism.

Hamza is also wanted by Washington on charges of attempting to set up a "terrorist training camp" in the state of Oregon, and could be extradited, possibly before serving out his full term in Britain.

Most of the charges for which Hamza was convicted stem from sermons he delivered in the late 1990s, when European security services were describing the British capital as "Londonistan", a hotbed for radicals clustered around Finsbury Park.