ABU HAMZA AL-MASRI is a hero of the al-Qaeda network comparable to Osama bin Laden, a United States government lawyer told magistrates in London yesterday.

The former imam of Finsbury Park mosque, North London, could acquire false passports and flee to Afghanistan if he were released pending a full hearing of the case for his extradition, it was alleged.

James Lewis, QC, told the bail hearing that there was an irresistible incentive for Abu Hamza, 46, to flee rather than face trial in America.“Despite all the worldwide resources put into seeking bin Laden and (Ayman) al-Zawahiri (bin Laden’s deputy) they have managed to escape and continue to evade capture,” he said.

“If Mr Hamza is granted bail it will be a short step for him to further his al-Qaeda hero status by going to Afghanistan or somewhere similar and where it is most likely he would be welcomed with open arms.”

The Egyptian-born extremist cleric was arrested a week ago on terrorist charges issued by a New York grand jury.

He spoke briefly to confirm his name, date of birth and understanding of the nine charges laid against him which involve hostage-taking in Yemen in 1998, a conspiracy to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and assisting terrorist groups in Afghanistan.

The proceedings were delayed by difficulties in bringing Abu Hamza — whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa — to the courtroom. He had been placed in a restraining body belt for the short journey through an underground tunnel from Belmarsh high-security prison to the courthouse.

Prison officers had been unable to handcuff him because the cleric had lost his hands in an explosion in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Abu Hamza is forbidden to wear his prosthetic hook outside his cell.

The restraint was removed before he entered the dock where he sat with his arms folded beneath a coat, flanked by three burly prison officers while two police officers wearing protective vests stood in the courtroom.

Mr Lewis said the US Government opposed bail for Abu Hamza because it believed he would abscond, might interfere with witnesses and would commit further offences.

“Mr Hamza is a man who, from an al-Qaeda point of view, is a hero in the same way that bin Laden is,” he said.

Despite his arrest in March 1999, Abu Hamza had continued to engage in terrorist activities. Mr Lewis said that Special Agent Michael Butsch of the FBI had uncovered an e-mail which showed that Abu Hamza had sent money to the commander of a terrorist training camp near Jalalabad, Afghanistan. The Derunta camp concentrated on the use of explosives and poisons.

In the autumn of 1999, Abu Hamza conspired with a witness referred to as CC1 to set up a training camp on an isolated ranch near Bly, Oregon. Two people, one of whom described himself as an al-Qaeda hitman, were sent from London to inspect the property.

CC1 is known to be James Ujaama, an American convert to Islam, who worked as Abu Hamza’s webmaster and has struck a plea bargain deal with the American authorities to testify against the cleric.

Paul Hynes, representing Abu Hamza, questioned the quality of the evidence put forward against his client, particularly that of witnesses who had done “supergrass” deals.

He also queried why his client’s alleged involvement in the kidnapping of Western tourists in Yemen, when Abu Hamza admits he was in contact with the kidnappers by phone from London, was not being tried in Britain.

Mr Hynes also said that Abu Hamza’s prospects of a fair hearing had been undermined by comments from John Ashcroft, the US Attorney-General, and David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, welcoming his arrest.

District Judge Timothy Workman intervened to say: “You can take it from me I will be ignoring those comments.”

Mr Hynes told the judge his client was notorious, instantly recognisable and very unlikely to flee the jurisdiction.

He said that his client “would not contemplate the shame and ignominy of fleeing like a thief in the night in the face of the might of America”.

Bail was refused and the cleric was remanded in custody until July 1 when he will appear via videolink at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court.

Supporters of Abu Hamza in the public gallery advertised a demonstration at the US Embassy in London today.

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