THE radical imam of the Finsbury Park Mosque, Abu Hamza al-Masri, went on trial at the Old Bailey yesterday accused of being a hate-filled bigot who encouraged his congregation to murder non-Muslims.

Abu Hamza, who is more used to to preaching, hectoring and haranguing audiences, was forced to sit and listen as the Crown’s case against him was spelt out in careful, concise detail.

He was depicted as an extremist who abused his position as a religious leader and twisted Islam and its holy book the Koran to produce a creed of intolerance and violence.

In his lectures — many of which were recorded on tape — he had argued that Adolf Hitler had been sent into the world to torture and punish the Jewish people.

Repeatedly, he told his followers they must fight for Allah and that fighting involved a religious obligation to murder Jews, kuffars [non-believers] and apostates.

David Perry, for the prosecution, told the court that Abu Hamza’s exhortation of murder and celebration of hatred were an affront to and an offence against Britain’s traditions of freedom of expression. His crimes were committed out of his mouth in the form of utterances that were “destructive and corrosive” of a free society.

Mr Perry said: “The plain, unambiguous meaning of these words — such as ‘every last Jew is going to be buried in Palestine’ — is obvious. He says jihad is obligatory, jihad involves the death of the kuffar, Jews are detestable, to be reviled and to be killed. This is what the defendant intended to be heard.

“Words are a powerful weapon. This is nothing more or less than preaching hatred and murder.”

Listening intently, Abu Hamza, 47, a tall, burly man, seemed a small figure surrounded by four prison guards in the dock of the cavernous old courtroom.

He has pleaded not guilty to fifteen charges, including nine of soliciting to murder and four of stirring up racial hatred.

His hair and beard have gone from grey to almost white since his arrest and he wore small spectacles attached to a silver-coloured chain around his neck. These, combined with the frown of concentration with which he followed proceedings, gave him a studious air.

Beside him in the dock sat a female member of his legal team and on a low table between them was a foot-high stack of legal papers and documents.

Abu Hamza has no hands and does not wear his prosthetic hook in court. The job of his legal assistant is to help him to follow the paperwork in the case.

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Alex Rider exclusive: Incident in Nice
• Green & confused: do energy-saving bulbs work?
• Let’s skip lunch, say the hungry generation