Cleric 'supported 5 terror groups'
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Hardline Muslim cleric Abu Hamza should be stripped of his British nationality and deported because he is a danger to society, the British government told a tribunal hearing.
A lawyer for the UK Home Office said Hamza had "provided support and advice" to five terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, had encouraged Jihad (holy war) and acts of terrorism, and had provided safe haven for extremists.
But Hamza, 44, won a 10-month breathing space to appeal to keep his UK citizenship. That was revoked last year in the first case of its kind under new legislation allowing citizenship to be stripped from immigrants who "seriously prejudice" the emergency laws.
The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) hearing in London Monday set a date of January 10, 2005 to hear the appeal, assuming the cleric begins receiving state legal aid funding in about a month.
Hamza, some-time preacher at Finsbury Park in North London, denies supporting terrorism.
The UK government has long described him as one of the two most influential al Qaeda-linked radical clerics in Britain, along with Abu Qatada, a Syrian national now jailed without charge under post-September 11 emergency powers.
Egyptian-born Hamza, whose ex-wife is British, has sparked outrage with sermons castigating Britain and the invasion of Iraq as a "war against Islam." He claimed the September 11 attacks were a Jewish plot and said the U.S. astronauts killed in the Columbia tragedy were "punished by Allah."
He has been condemned by mainstream British Muslim leaders.
Hamza is challenging Home Secretary David Blunkett's attempt to strip him of his citizenship and send him back to Yemen, his last place of residence before coming to Britain.
Ian Burnett QC, counsel for Blunkett, told the SIAC tribunal Monday that the government had four major areas of concern regarding Hamza, news agencies reported.
Burnett said Hamza had "provided support and advice to terrorist groups" including the GIA, an Algerian group, the Yemeni IAA group, the Egyptian organization called the EIJ, the Kashmiri group called the HUA and "of course" to al Qaeda.
Hamza had "encouraged and supported the participation in Jihad including fighting overseas and engaging in terrorist acts", Burnett said.
Hamza has also provided from the Finsbury Park mosque a "sense of extremism and a center for safe haven for Islamic extremists."
Burnett also declared that Hamza had also "promoted anti-western sentiment and violence through his teachings."
SIAC is to decide when Hamza's full appeal will begin and how long it will last.
Hamza, who is on a U.N. Security Council list as being associated with al Qaeda, has been granted legal aid of up to £250,000, the UK's Press Association reported.
Legal authorities have agreed to provide state funding for him to fight his deportation, his lawyer told the tribunal.
The figure could be as much as £250,000, PA reported. But the UK Treasury must still rule on whether the costs are reasonable and then clear the payments with a U.N. commission set up to block funding of terrorism.
Al Qaeda operatives are known to have attended the Finsbury Park mosque where Hamza preached, including shoebomber Richard Reid and the 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui.
Hamza, who once worked as a nightclub bouncer, became a British citizen through marriage in 1981. The marriage has since ended.
He went to Afghanistan to fight the Soviet Union's occupation of the country and while there lost both hands and an eye when a landmine detonated, he says.
The UK Charity Commission last year banned him from preaching at the Finsbury Park mosque because he was accused of abusing his position for "personal and political, rather than charitable purposes."
The mosque was closed after a dawn raid by police in January 2003. Hamza now preaches each week outside on the street.
