The usually fiery Muslim cleric who has been accused of aiding terrorist organizations was subdued when a guilty verdict was read out today at a New York court, BBC News reported. Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was found guilty of helping kidnappers of the 16 US nationals in Yemen and attempting to establish a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Abu Hamza, who had been extradited from the UK two years ago following an eight-year battle, had since denied all the charges filed against him. The news outlet said Abu Hamza could face a life sentence for the most serious of his crimes.
Abu Hamza reportedly gained fame in the British nation for his passionate sermons just outside the mosque at Finsbury Park, with one of the sermons have him praising the hijackers of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York. Abu Hamza was extradited in the US after a seven-year jail sentence in the UK for inciting race hate and murder, BBC News said.
A New York jury consisting of eight men and four women all agreed to give a guilty verdict on all 11 counts of terrorism charges against Abu Hamza, the news outlet detailed.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said about the verdict, The defendant stands convicted, not for what he said, but for what he did. Abu Hamza was not just a preacher of faith, but a trainer of terrorists. Abu Hamza...attempted to portray himself as a preacher of faith but he was, instead, a trainer of terrorists. Once again our civilian system of justice has proven itself up to the task of trying an accused terrorist and arriving at a fair and just and swift result."
BBC News said lawyers for Abu Hamza expressed their intention to appeal the decision, and said that the comments he had made on matters unrelated to the case were given too much merit.
One of the lawyers, Jeremy Schneider, said after the verdict, "Bin Laden, al-Qaeda, 9/11, World Trade Centre, USS Cole - all those things which our client was not charged with specifically, they played much more of a role than we believe it should have."
