Sunday, March 12, 2017

Son of hook-handed hate preacher Abu Hamza flees the UK to fight alongside rebel groups in war-torn Syria

  • Sufiyan Mustafa, 22, has played an active role in fighting alongside rebel groups 
  • It's believed Mustafa, the son of Abu Hamza, was involved in the siege of Aleppo
  • Before heading to Syria, he studied at London's Westminster University, the same school attended by IS executioner Mohammed 'Jihadi John' Emwazi 
  • Mustafa is the sixth of eight children fathered by Egyptian-born Hamza, 58
  • The hate preacher is serving a life sentence in a US prison for terror offences
The son of hate preacher Abu Hamza has left the UK to fight alongside rebel groups in Syria, it is believed.
Since making the 22,000-mile journey, Sufiyan Mustafa, 22, has played an active role in fighting and was involved in the siege of Aleppo, intelligence insiders claim.
It is unclear if Mustafa is fighting alongside Islamic State fighters or members of other rebel groups.  
Hate preacher Abu Hamza's son, Sufiyan Mustafa, 22, has played an active role in fighting alongside rebel groups and was involved in the siege of Aleppo, intelligence insiders claim
Hate preacher Abu Hamza's son, Sufiyan Mustafa, 22, has played an active role in fighting alongside rebel groups and was involved in the siege of Aleppo, intelligence insiders claim
Mustafa is the sixth of eight children fathered by Hamza, 58, an Egyptian-born hate preacher who is now serving a life sentence in a US prison for terror offences.
Mustafa's father, Hamza, rose to notoriety in the UK after becoming imam of the Finsbury Park mosque, in north London, in 1997
Mustafa's father, Hamza, rose to notoriety in the UK after becoming imam of the Finsbury Park mosque, in north London, in 1997
Before heading to Syria, he studied at London's Westminster University, the same school attended by IS executioner Mohammed 'Jihadi John' Emwazi.
An intelligence insider told The Sunday People that Mustafa has no criminal record in the UK, but he 'has been part of military operations' in Syria.
The insider added: 'He has managed to stay a ghost since he set foot in Syria but it's thought he has been with rebels in the north.'
Experts believe that more than 800 Brits have flocked to Iraq and Syria to join 27,000 foreigners fighting for IS since violence broke out in 2011.
Mustafa's father, Hamza was jailed for life for terrorism offences during a trial in New York City in 2015, and has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement at a high security prison in Florence, Colorado.
Hamza was extradited to the US after the British government spent a decade trying to kick him out of the country.
He rose to notoriety in the UK after becoming imam of the Finsbury Park mosque, in north London, in 1997.
Hamza was jailed for life for terrorism offences during a trial in New York City in 2015
He has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement at a high security prison in Florence, Colorado
Hamza was jailed for life for terrorism offences during a trial in New York City in 2015, and has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement at a high security prison in Florence, Colorado.
One year later, in 1998, he helped organise hostage-taking of 16 mostly British tourists in Yemen. Three Britons and an Australian killed in rescue mission.
In 2000, he set up a terrorist training camp back in the US, in Bly, Oregon, sending volunteers and money to Afghanistan to support al Qaeda and the Taliban.
He then firmly placed himself on the national radar in 2001 after speaking out in support of Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.
His current jail is known as the 'Alcatraz of the Rockies', due to its reputation as being inescapable.

It houses the most dangerous inmates in the US prison system and is believed to the world's most secure prison.

Two of Hamza's sons, as well as a stepson, have also been jailed for various offenses, including a bomb plot and a robbery.

ABU HAMZA - THE EGYPTIAN ENGINEER WHO BECAME A PREACHER OF HATE



Abu Hamza al-Masri was born in Alexandria, Egypt in 1958 as Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, the son of a naval officer and a primary school headmistress.

After initially studying civil engineering he entered the UK in 1979 on a student visa.

He was granted UK citizenship when he met and married his first wife, a British Muslim convert, in 1980. Hamza has previously said she was the one who got him interested in Islam and he converted after taking time off from his job as a nightclub bouncer in London’s Soho. 

As he found his new religion and his job incompatible, he instead resumed his civil engineering studies at Brunel University and Brighton Polytechnic, gaining a degree.

He then divorced his first wife, the mother of his oldest son, Muhammed Kamel, who at the age of 17 was convicted of being part of a bomb plot in Yemen and imprisoned for three years in 1999.

He met and married his second wife in 1984 in a Muslim ceremony in London and had a further seven childen.

Heavily influenced by the Iranian revolution, he took an interest in Islam and politics, in particularly the occupation of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union.

After meeting the founder of Afghan Mujahideen in 1987, he moved to Egypt and then to Afghanistan, and it was in the following years that he lost his hands and one eye.

Over the years, Hamza has given several different reasons for the loss of his hands and eye. These include a road project in Pakistan, an explosion during a de-mining project in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, fighting the jihad as a Pakistani Mujahideen, and working with Pakistani military in Lahore when an explosives experiment went wrong.

After spending time in Afghanistan and Bosnia in the early 90s, he returned to Britain and adopted a new name - Sheikh Abu Hamza al-Masri.

It was in London that Hamza began his rise to public notoriety as the Finsbury Park mosque imam, where he arrived in 1997.

One year later, in 1998, he helped organise hostage-taking of 16 mostly British tourists in Yemen. Three Britons and an Australian killed in rescue mission.

In 2000, he set up a terrorist training camp in Bly, Oregon, sending volunteers and money to Afghanistan to support al Qaeda and the Taliban.

He firmly placed himself on the national radar in 2001 after speaking out in support of Osama bin Laden following the September 11 attacks.

His inflammatory speeches led to the Charity Commission suspending him from his position at Finsbury Park Mosque the following year.

In 2003, legal moves begin to get Hamza deported to Yemen, a move which he appealed.
In 2004 Hamza was arrested on a US extradition warrant over charges of conspiring to take hostages in Yemen, funding terrorism, and organising a terrorist training camp in Oregon. Charged with 15 offences under the Terrorism Act, temporarily staying US extradition.

In 2006, Hamza was jailed for seven years at the Old Bailey after being found guilty of 11 of 15 charges, but the courts still battle to have him extradited.

He was finally extradited in October 2012, and appeared in a U.S. court, indicted under the name Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, where he pleaded not guilty to terrorism charges.

In May 2014, Hamza was convicted of all 11 charges on terrorism offences at Manhattan’s Federal Court.

Hamza was jailed for life for terrorism offences in 2015, and has been serving his sentence in solitary confinement at a high security prison in Florence, Colorado.


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