Islamic preacher Mustafa Kamel Mustafa guilty of terrorism charges
US jury finds Egyptian preacher guilty of giving support to extremists
An Egyptian Islamic preacher whose fiery sermons before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States attracted extremists to his London mosque has been convicted of terror charges in a trial that a prosecutor said should provide justice for the victims of a kidnapping in Yemen more than a decade ago.
The 56-year-old cleric, Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, was found guilty on Monday just weeks after an al-Qaeda spokesman was convicted.
Don’t be fooled. … Don’t let the passage of time diminish what he did
Mustafa, better known in Britain as Abu Hamza al-Masri, was accused of providing material support to terrorist organisations by enabling hostage takers in the Yemen kidnapping to speak on a satellite phone, by sending men to establish an al-Qaeda training camp in the US state of Oregon, and by sending at least one man to training camps in Afghanistan.
He was extradited in 2012 from England, where he led London's Finsbury Park Mosque in the 1990s, reportedly attended by both September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid. Mustafa denied that he ever met them.
Mustafa looked straight ahead as the verdict was read. Sentencing was set for September 8, when he faces a maximum of life in prison.
Defence attorney Joshua Dratel said the verdict was "not about the evidence but about a visceral reaction to the defendant".