HOOK LEGAL FIGHT COSTS YOU £250K

Taxpayers face new Hamza bill

The hook-handed cleric is determined to avoid facing serious terror charges in the US and has vowed to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
Hamza, 47, began a seven-year jail term at Belmarsh Prison in south-east London earlier this month for inciting murder and racial hatred.
But a Belmarsh source told The People: "He is boasting he will be out in less than two years and says he will take the taxpayer to the cleaners.
"He is determined to exhaust every avenue before he can be extradited. He knows how to use the system as he has been abusing it for years."
The US wants Hamza on a number of terror charges including taking hostages. Legal sources say his fight to avoid extradition on release from Belmarsh could cost at least £250,000. Hamza was sent to the top-security jail after a month-long trial at the Old Bailey. Since then the Legal Services Commission has been probing his assets so it can recoup the public funding of his defence costs.
Hamza sold a flat in West London for £228,000 in September 2004 while being held on remand.
Before his arrest he had lived with his wife and seven children in a nearby council house worth £550,000. Since 1993 Hamza is estimated to have cost the taxpayer £300,000 in benefits.
Hamza has continued to rant inside Belmarsh. Our source said: "He is still preaching in corridors and in association periods while in prison.
"Something needs to be done to stop him influencing impressionable young men." The arrogant cleric is said to refer to Home Secretary Charles Clarke as a "fat pig", while telling warders he only takes orders from God.

phil.nettleton@people.co.uk

STOP FUNDING THIS PREACHER OF HATE



HOOK-HANDED cleric Abu Hamza has tested the patience of a nation with his racist ranting.
It cost him a seven-year jail stretch which everyone hoped might stop him spouting bile at every opportunity.
It is costing taxpayers a small fortune to keep the preacher of hate where he belongs in a top-security prison.
But as The People reveals today, the bill will soar by £250,000 as Abu Hamza launches a new legal battle.
Taxpayers will be forking out yet again as he gets legal help to fight attempts to extradite him to the United States.
All this cash goes to a man who has used the benefits system to help fund his web of terror.
He even managed to flog his council house for a fat profit while behind bars.
Of course it is right and just that people should not be denied some help to fund their legal cases.
But it would be hard to find a less deserving use of public cash than showering it on Abu Hamza and his legal team.
Much of the money would come from the same ordinary, decent people who have endured his vile rants and attacks on their race or religion for years.
The Government and legal chiefs must put every possible check in place before any cash is handed over to this madman.
Abu Hamza should be forced to pay for his campaign by emptying his own pockets and bank accounts first.
If there is any justice in the world, he won't get a single penny from us until then.