Police and prosecutors today defended themselves against accusations that they dithered during the ten years that it took to bring Abu Hamza al-Masri to trial.
Scotland Yard and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) released a joint statement justifying their actions over the radical Islamist cleric, who was jailed for seven years yesterday for inciting his followers to commit murder.
Critics have accused Metropolitan Police of turning a blind eye to his fanatical teachings. The Times reported today that Abu Hamza's liberty allowed him to preach his message of violence to three of the suicide bombers who attacked London on July 7.
Patrick Mercer, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that British detectives became involved only when their counterparts in the United States his capture and extradition.
Scotland Yard today rejected the criticisms of inaction. A spokesman said that it had investigated Abu Hamza's activities on a number of occasions and had sent files of evidence to the CPS in March, 1999 and June, 2003.
Both files related to allegations that Hamza was connected to the kidnapping in the Yemen in 1998 of 16 western tourists, during which three Britons died.
The spokesman said that the evidence was judged to be "clearly insufficient" to support a successful prosecution. At the time, neither was even a borderline case although it emerged today that a video seized in 2003 formed the basis of the eventual court case.
It was not until Scotland Yard submitted a third file, in June 2004 that the CPS decided it had enough legal ammunition to prosecute. This followed a raid on Abu Hamza's home in West London the previous May, in response to a request from the US for the preacher's extradition.
Mr Mercer today called for a judicial review of the decisions taken by prosecutors over the case, saying it was now clear he had not been taken "completely seriously".
In a joint statement, Sue Hemming, head of the CPS’s Counter Terrorism Division, and Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard’s Anti-Terrorist Branch, insisted that both authorities had worked together.
Their statement said the "overwhelming bulk" of the material used in evidence at Hamza’s Old Bailey trial had come from the seizures at his home in May 2004. The decision to prosecute was taken by the CPS in October of that year.
The convictions yesterday were the "successful outcome of close and painstaking joint police and CPS work", they said.
Mr Mercer, however, said that it was now clear Abu Hamza had helped to inspire terrorists and that action against him should have been taken sooner.
"We gave him a hell of a lot of rope and it makes you wonder what needs to happen nationally and internationally for people to take this sort of thing seriously," he said. "It would appear that he has been appeased.
Referring to the July 7 bombers, Mr Mercer said: "If these young men, who murdered 52 people in this country, have been inspired by Abu Hamza - surely this suggests that this man should have been put away several years before he actually was."
Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Jermaine Lindsay, who detonated rucksack bombs on London Tube trains, all heard him exhort Muslims to kill unbelievers in the name of Islam, The Times reported.
Khan and Tanweer heard the cleric’s sermons inside the North London mosque. They and Lindsay were also among crowds that heard Abu Hamza preach on the street after the building was closed in a police raid in 2003.
The link between Abu Hamza, 47, and the bombers, who killed 52 people and themselves, raises a possible new explanation for the timing of the attacks.
On the morning of July 7 Abu Hamza was in the dock at the Old Bailey about to stand trial. But his case was postponed for six months. It resumed last month, culminating in yesterday's verdict.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that the judgment of whether to proceed with a prosecution lay entirely in the hands of the CPS.
"However, I think - without talking about the Abu Hamza case as such - what it illustrates is why we believe there are additional powers that are necessary in this area and why we are putting forward legislation which comes back to the House next week on, for instance, glorification of terrorism," he said.
Next Wednesday the Commons votes on whether to restore a clause to the Terrorism Bill, deleted by the Lords, which creates a new offence of glorification of terrorism.
David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, poured scorn on the suggestion.
"Number 10’s claims that adequate laws are not available to prosecute is nonsense - six of Abu Hamza’s convictions were under the 1861 Offences against the Person Act; three of his convictions were under the 1986 Public Order Act and only the least important charge was under the 2000 Terror Act - which in any case would have allowed for prosecution in 2001, rather than 2005," he said.
Criticism of the handling of the case also came from France, where a senior intelligence director also claimed the UK failed to act quickly enough.
Christophe Chaboud, director of France’s national anti-terrorism co-ordination unit (UCLAT), said French intelligence had passed on evidence implicating Hamza and believed he was playing a key role in spreading holy war.
"We thought it would have been necessary to take action, to arrest and prosecute him," he said.
Hamza, 47, was jailed for seven years at the Old Bailey yesterday after being convicted of a string of race hate and terror charges. His case has already re-ignited the wider debate about the Government’s approach to dealing with the terrorism threat.
According to one report today, there are more than 100 terror suspects deemed to be a threat to national security who have yet to be deported from the country.
This reportedly includes nine men subject to control orders and 10 more detained at Belmarsh, south-east London The rest are being monitored, but remain free from any restrictions.
Meanwhile, police investigators say that Abu Hamza could have used Cumbria for training recruits to terror.
They believe equipment seized at the Finsbury Park in north London where Abu Hamza was imam for six years until 2002 had been used at camps in places like the Lake District.
One officer said: "Wherever there’s a national park, you’ll find them - the Yorkshire Dales, the Lake District, the West Highlands. It’s much more than just a few white-water-rafting trips in Wales."
