Jailed hate-preacher Abu Hamza has changed his name by deed poll to shed his criminal past, it has been revealed.

The hook-handed radical has ordered staff and inmates at high-security Belmarsh Prison to call him Mustafa Kamal Mustafa.

He demanded the new name while he awaits extradition to the US on terrorism charges.

But while staff at the jail have been told to address him by his new name, they insist he is still unofficially known as Abu Hamza al-Masri - the name he adopted when when he began preaching Islamic extremism.

A Whitehall source told The Sun: 'He is trying to shed the enormous amount of baggage associated with his old name.

'He can call himself what he likes officially but he will be forever known as Abu Hamza.'

Hamza was actually born Mustafa Kamal Mustafa but later swapped it for Abu Hamza al-Masri, meaning 'strong and steadfast'.

He came to the UK in the early 1980s to study before he married an English woman, Valerie Fleming, and received British citizenship, but the couple divorced years later.

 

He later suffered injuries to his hands and eye in Afghanistan, where he travelled to fight a 'jihad' against Soviet occupation.

On his return to the UK, Hamza started preaching radical anti-Western sermons at the Finsbury Park Mosque, in north London.##

In May 2004, Hamza was arrested on a US extradition warrant. The US want him on charges of conspiring to take Western hostages in Yemen, funding terrorism, and organising a terrorist training camp in Oregon between 1998 and 2000.

In October 2004, he was charged with 15 offences under the Terrorism Act, including incitement to murder and possession of a terrorism document, temporarily staying the US extradition process.

He was jailed for seven years in February 2006 for preaching hateand inciting murder at Finsbury Park Mosque in North London. He wouldbe eligible for release but remains inside while his extradition case continues.

He has since made a series of legal appeals to dodge extradition but all so far have failed.

In 2009 Hamza was accused of preaching extremist sermons to other prisoners through the water pipes in his prison cell. 

The news emerged at the same time as it was revealed that prison bosses spent £650 on new sink taps in his cell. 

The chrome lever tapswere designed to be easier for him to use than the standard design.

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