Radical Islamist cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was found guilty on 11 terrorism charges in a New York court on Monday.
A jury found the fundamentalist imam, who was tried as Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, guilty of conspiring to aid al-Qaeda in a Yemen kidnapping of American citizens in 1998 and of sending men to terrorist training camps. He now faces life in prison, the Associated Press reports.
The Egypt-born cleric was formerly based in London, where he became notorious for giving outdoor sermons condemning the West, and praising Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers. The mosque where he preached was also frequented by shoe bomber Richard Reid, though Abu Hamza claims he never met him.
Abu Hamza was extradited to the U.S. in 2012 after spending seven years in a British jail for inciting murder and racial hatred. He was nicknamed Hook by the British tabloids on account of his scarred appearance, having lost both hands and an eye while working on a civil-engineering project in Pakistan in 1993.
[AP]
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Introducing the 2024 TIME100 Next
- The Reinvention of J.D. Vance
- How to Survive Election Season Without Losing Your Mind
- Welcome to the Golden Age of Scams
- Did the Pandemic Break Our Brains?
- The Many Lives of Jack Antonoff
- 33 True Crime Documentaries That Shaped the Genre
- Why Gut Health Issues Are More Common in Women
Contact us at letters@time.com