 Radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, who is in a British jail on incitement to murder charges, is to sue welfare officials for thousands of pounds (dollars) in extra state benefits, a newspaper said. Hamza, who is due in court next month on incitement to murder charges, claims he has been denied benefits worth 200 pounds (290 euros, 389 dollars) a week for nearly three years, The Sun newspaper said. His family are already taking in benefits worth over 1,000 pounds a week, it said. Meanwhile, he is kept at the taxpayers' expense in jail, has his own personal nurse and even received a new hook worth 5,000 pounds, which is in place of his missing hand, it said. A jail source was quoted as saying: "He has a cheek."
| Doesn't mean he gets to keep it. |
Hamza, 47, an Egyptian-born British national, a distinctive figure with one eye and a hooked hand, was charged in October with 10 counts of soliciting murder. The little-used charge, covered by an 1861 criminal law, relates to inciting others to murder unspecified people and carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. In Hamza's case it is connected to alleged incitement by the cleric at public gatherings to kill non-Muslims, specifically Jews, according to four of the charges. He was also charged with four counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to stir up racial hatred; one count of possessing threatening, abusive or insulting sound recordings; and one count of possessing a terrorist document. The United States is seeking to extradite him on separate charges. The US extradition case has been suspended until the British charges are dealt with.
| We'll wait patiently. If he does get life, send him to us when his sentence is up. I'm sure we have a federal prison plot in the Leavenworth cemetery for him. |
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