The Hindu : International : Muslim cleric arrested

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 28, 2004

International

International

Muslim cleric arrested

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON: A controversial British Muslim cleric, Abu Hamza al-Masri, was arrested here on Thursday on an extradition warrant from the American Government on alleged terror charges. Ironically, the 47-year-old Egyptian-born demagogue was once an American ally and took part in the CIA-backed armed campaign against the erstwhile Soviet forces in Afghanistan. He lost an arm and an eye in that campaign, and wears a hook in place of his amputated arm. But in recent years Mr. Hamza has emerged as a bitter critic of American and British policies calling the military attacks on Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq as an attack on Islam. He has been under surveillance by British intelligence agencies. The arrest in a dramatic pre-dawn swoop on his west London home came amid a move by the British Government to strip him of his citizenship and deport him for alleged anti-national activities. Details of the American charge sheet were not immediately known, but reports said that U.S. authorities apparently claimed they had evidence that he had been recruiting for Al-Qaeda.

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