Hamza Appeals

Radical Islamist cleric Abu Hamza is appealing against his convictions. In Februrary he was sentenced to 7 years in prison for inciting murder and for race-hate offences. He was found to have a "manual" for terrorism called the Encyclopaedia of the Afghani Jihad. Yemen want him extradited there to face charges of being involved in bomb plots but the British Government refuses.

You can read some of his statements here.

It was also reported on Saturday, in a local paper, that The Legal Services Commission has obtained a court order to prevent the sale of a property that Abu Hamza supposedly bought while in prison. The house is worth over £200,000 and Hamza's legal costs, which are paid for by the public, amount to around the same amount.

UPDATE: The grounds for appeal have now emerged. Hamza's lawyer claims that it was "unfair and oppressive" to prosecute him for speeches made a long time before. He also claimed that Hamza was "subjected to a relentless campaign of adverse media publicity condemning him as a preacher of hate and inciter of violence and to public condemnation by political figures".

UPDATE: Hamza's lawyers are trying a new tactic to get him off. They are claiming that incitement laws only apply to inciting British citizens to kill, inciting foreigners to kill other foreigners, they argue, is perfectly permissible.