6.45pm update

Hamza kept terrorism manual, court told

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza kept a "manual for terrorism" which contained a dedication to Osama bin Laden and suggested a list of targets including Big Ben, the Old Bailey heard today.

The Encyclopaedia of Afghani Jihad, which was allegedly found at Mr Hamza's home in west London, also advised hitting targets such as skyscrapers, the Statue of Liberty or the Eiffel Tower to cause "destruction".

Museums and archaeological sites were also among the 10-volume book's suggestions for attacks, the Old Bailey was told at the start of Mr Hamza's trial on 15 race hate charges, including soliciting murder.

Opening the prosecution case, barrister David Perry said the Muslim cleric had encouraged his followers to murder "non-believers" and preached hatred in a series of speeches and sermons.

Rarely did the cleric speak of charity or compassion as he might have been expected to as a spiritual leader, Mr Perry said.

The prosecutor said the 47-year-old preacher singled out Jews, proclaiming in one of his sermons that "Hitler was sent into the world" because of their "treachery, blasphemy and filth".

Mr Hamza also claimed that Jews controlled the west and must be removed from the Earth, the court was told.

The cleric faces nine charges under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861 alleging he solicited others at public meetings to murder Jews and other non-Muslims. Mr Hamza denies all the charges.

The court heard that Mr Hamza told his followers that "as part of the religious duty to fight in the cause of Allah, it was part of the religious duty to kill".

Mr Perry said that when the cleric was arrested last year, police found 2,700 audiotapes and 570 videotapes when they searched his home. From those tapes, the prosecution extracted nine that the jury will hear during the the trial.

Speaking about the encyclopaedia, Mr Perry said it advised that plans "should be laid out" to hit buildings including ports, airports, nuclear plants and football stadiums. It also talked about attacking large congregations of people at Christmas.

The encyclopaedia contained a dedication to "Abu Abdullah Osama bin Laden" for "carrying out jihad in Afghanistan and who is still, to this date, inciting jihad", the court was told.

The jury heard that the book described how to make explosives, carry out assassinations and gave guidance on how a terrorist or military unit could operate most effectively.

Mr Hamza faces a charge relating to the encyclopaedia under section 58 of the Terrorism Act, which accuses him of possession of a document which contained information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism".

The book echoed "the things which feature in the defendant's speeches", Mr Perry said.

The jury was told that Mr Hamza was a well-known preacher or speaker in the Muslim community who frequently gave talks at meetings and delivered sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London before it closed in 2003.


A further charge alleges Mr Hamza was in possession of video and audio recordings, which he intended to distribute to stir up racial hatred.

Mr Perry said that, in his lectures, Mr Hamza used the word caliph, historically a chief Muslim and civil leader regarded as a successor to the Prophet Muhammad.

"He is working for a worldwide caliphate - a world dominated by a caliph sitting, he says in one of his lectures, in the White House," Mr Perry told the court.

In the first tape, dating from 1997 or 1998, Mr Hamza calls on the audience to sacrifice itself in order to establish the caliphate by fighting in three phases, Mr Perry said.

Mr Hamza allegedly described the first stage as "bleeding the enemy".

"Like you imagine you have one small knife and you have a big animal in front of you. The size of the knife - you cannot slaughter him with this. You have to stab him here and there until he bleeds to death. Then you can cut up the meat as you like to, or leave it to the maggots."

In a second tape, recorded in 1999, Mr Hamza allegedly described the UK as a kuffar (unbeliever) country that was at war with Islam because it did not believe in Sharia law.

Mr Perry said: "He says that killing the kuffar for any reason is OK - even if it is for no reason at all," Mr Perry continued. "You might think that is indiscriminate killing."

Another videotape, found at an address in north London, contained a series of sermons delivered in 2000. In one of these, Mr Hamza referred to the sinking of the Russian submarine, the Kursk, in August of that year. He called on Allah "to kill the sailors" on the submarine in retaliation for "our brothers in Chechnya", Mr Perry said.

The prosecuting counsel said Mr Hamza was born in Egypt in 1958 but had lived in the UK for a number of years and was now a British citizen.

Today, Mr Hamza, who has no hands and only one eye, sat flanked by three police officers in the dock. The bearded, bespectacled cleric wore a light blue shirt and trousers.

The trial continues tomorrow.

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