Radical Cleric Goes on Trial in London

LONDON (AP) -

A radical cleric encouraged his followers to kill Jews and other non-Muslims in taped sermons found in his home after his arrest, prosecutors said Wednesday at the start of his trial on charges of encouraging murder and fomenting racial hatred.
Prosecutor David Perry told jurors at London's Central Criminal Court that they could expect to hear the defendant, Abu Hamza al-Masri, saying Jews "control the West and must be removed from the Earth" during the trial, which is expected to last nearly a month.

The Egyptian-born cleric - who says he lost his eye and hands fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s - was a head preacher at London's Finsbury Park mosque, which has been linked to terrorist suspects including alleged Sept. 11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui and "shoe bomber" Richard Reid.
During his time at the mosque, al-Masri referred to Jews as "blasphemous, traitors and dirty" and said their behavior was "why Hitler was sent into the world," Perry said.

"The prosecution case, in a sentence, is that the defendant, Sheikh Abu Hamza, was preaching murder and hatred in these talks," he said.

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