 Britain will charge radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri with terrorism offences, putting U.S. attempts to extradite him over a 1998 hostage-taking in Yemen on hold. Prosecutors and police on Friday said only that a decision had been taken on whether to charge Abu Hamza. But a source familiar with the case confirmed to Reuters that prosecutors had advised he should be charged in Britain. The outspoken cleric, who has preached in support of Osama bin Laden, is already in British jail after the United States began legal steps to extradite him. The United States has indicted him on 11 counts including having a role in the 1998 hostage-taking in Yemen in which four people died. The cleric, who has one eye and a steel hook after being wounded in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces, was arrested under a U.S. warrant in May. But in August Britain launched its own probe to see whether it could mount a case against him. A full five-day extradition hearing was due to start on October 19 but would have to be postponed until after any case raised in Britain is answered, officials have said. |