Hate preacher Abu Hamza last night began yet another expensive legal fight against the taxpayer - this time to retain his British passport. His appeal against a Home Office decision to remove his UK citizenship is expected to cost tens of thousands of pounds.
This is in addition to the estimated £3.5million the fanatic has already cost the public purse, including £1.1million in legal aid.
Home Secretary Alan Johnson says Hamza, who has joint UK and Egyptian nationality, is unfit to keep his British passport.
But 51-year-old Hamza claims this is unfair.
He is currently in a high security jail fighting attempts to extradite him to the U.S. on terror charges.
That case will come before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg later this year.
His lawyer, Amanda Weston, told a preliminary hearing of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission that her client wanted the citizenship case heard while he was still in the UK and 'able to participate in proceedings'.
James Strachan, for the Home Office, said the case should be put off until after the Strasbourg ruling.
Hamza, who for years preached hate at the Finsbury Park Mosque in North London, is using every possible means to stay here.
If he wins both his extradition case at the European Court of Human Rights and his citizenship appeal, he could not be sent to the U.S. or any other country.
Hamza came here from north Africa in the early 1980s on a student visa and acquired a British passport through marriage. He was jailed for seven years in February 2006 for inciting murder and race hate.
Attempts to take his passport away were launched in 2003 but delayed by other legal actions against him.
Revoking his citizenship might allow the authorities to deport Hamza if his court fight against extradition is successful.
A preliminary hearing date was set for February 9.
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