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timesonline.co.uk/article/0,2-1454234,00.html
Britain
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/grey.gifhttp://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gif
January 24, 2005
Police spent £900,000 to give Hamza street pulpit
By Sean O’Neill
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images...p://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gifAbu Hamza al-Masri, who preached under police protection, is awaiting trial in Belmarsh prison (BEN GURR)http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gifALMOST £900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers.
The Metropolitan Police has disclosed, after a successful Freedom of Information Act request by The Times, that the cost of supervising weekly gatherings outside Finsbury Park Mosque, North London, was £874,387. The figure is far in excess of previous estimates for the 22-month police operation.
Before the introduction of the new legislation on January 1, Scotland Yard had refused to discuss the cost of policing Hamza’s Friday prayer meetings. The Freedom of Information Act, which gives access to a range of information held by public bodies, forced disclosure of the figures.
NI_MPU(‘middle’);Patrick Mercer, the Conservative frontbench spokesman on homeland security, said the taxpayer was facing a huge bill for allowing an extremist message to be preached on the streets of the capital. “The effect of the police action was to make it easier for poison and subversion to be preached openly on our streets,” Mr Mercer said. The open-air meetings began in January 2003 after the mosque, where Hamza had been the imam, was closed. The Egyptian-born cleric gave his sermons in St Thomas’s Road, close to Highbury stadium.
continued in next post
Britain
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/grey.gifhttp://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gif
January 24, 2005
Police spent £900,000 to give Hamza street pulpit
By Sean O’Neill
http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images...p://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gifAbu Hamza al-Masri, who preached under police protection, is awaiting trial in Belmarsh prison (BEN GURR)http://images.thetimes.co.uk/images/trans.gifALMOST £900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers.
The Metropolitan Police has disclosed, after a successful Freedom of Information Act request by The Times, that the cost of supervising weekly gatherings outside Finsbury Park Mosque, North London, was £874,387. The figure is far in excess of previous estimates for the 22-month police operation.
Before the introduction of the new legislation on January 1, Scotland Yard had refused to discuss the cost of policing Hamza’s Friday prayer meetings. The Freedom of Information Act, which gives access to a range of information held by public bodies, forced disclosure of the figures.
NI_MPU(‘middle’);Patrick Mercer, the Conservative frontbench spokesman on homeland security, said the taxpayer was facing a huge bill for allowing an extremist message to be preached on the streets of the capital. “The effect of the police action was to make it easier for poison and subversion to be preached openly on our streets,” Mr Mercer said. The open-air meetings began in January 2003 after the mosque, where Hamza had been the imam, was closed. The Egyptian-born cleric gave his sermons in St Thomas’s Road, close to Highbury stadium.
continued in next post