ALMOST £900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers.

The Metropolitan Police has disclosed, after a successful Freedom of Information Act request by The Times, that the cost of supervising weekly gatherings outside Finsbury Park Mosque, North London, was £874,387. The figure is far in excess of previous estimates for the 22-month police operation.

Before the introduction of the new legislation on January 1, Scotland Yard had refused to discuss the cost of policing Hamza’s Friday prayer meetings. The Freedom of Information Act, which gives access to a range of information held by public bodies, forced disclosure of the figures.

Patrick Mercer, the Conservative frontbench spokesman on homeland security, said the taxpayer was facing a huge bill for allowing an extremist message to be preached on the streets of the capital.

“The effect of the police action was to make it easier for poison and subversion to be preached openly on our streets,” Mr Mercer said.

The open-air meetings began in January 2003 after the mosque, where Hamza had been the imam, was closed. The Egyptian-born cleric gave his sermons in St Thomas’s Road, close to Highbury stadium.

Initially large numbers of officers were involved in policing the events at which Hamza, 47, would deliver lectures in Arabic and English.

Tarpaulins were spread on the road, on which his congregation, often numbering 150 or more, would pray before listening to Hamza speak.

Between 12 and 18 uniformed officers were deployed to the site of the meetings for up to two hours each week. More police were required when counter-demonstrators threatened to disrupt an event.

After Hamza was arrested on an extradition warrant from the United States last May, the Friday gatherings continued with other speakers.

Local residents complained about the disruption caused by the meetings that continued until the mosque building was reopened in October.

Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told the police authority that the situation was “a challenging policing operation” that had been handled with “appropriate sensitivity”.

Andrew Dismore, a Labour MP who has frequently raised the issue of the meetings in Parliament, said that he was appalled by the waste of public money. He said: “£900,000 could have gone a long way towards putting more police officers on the beat.”

Hamza, who has one eye and has lost both hands, is on remand in Belmarsh prison, South London, awaiting trial on 16 alleged offences, including one offence under the Terrorism Act.

A request by The Times for information about the policing operation at Finsbury Park was submitted on January 6. The Metropolitan Police responded within the four-week deadline for answering Freedom of Information requests.

FACTFINDING

• The Freedom of Information Act 2000 came into effect on January 1, 2005
  
  
• Anyone can apply to public bodies for access to recorded information
  
  
• Recipient must respond within 20 working days
  
  
• Charges can be made if the information will cost more than £600 to retrieve
  
  
• There is a ministerial veto and Intelligence services are exempt

  Should police money be spent on overseeing such meetings?

  Send your e-mails to debate@thetimes.co.uk

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