A federal prosecutor warned a Manhattan jury Wednesday not to be “fooled” by handless hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri’s claims that he was just a “peacemaker” or “mouthpiece” for followers of his and that he was unaware they planned to commit terror crimes.
Assistant US Attorney Ian McGinley also ripped the one-eyed, hook-handed imam for trying to distance himself on the witness stand from top lieutenants who traveled to Bly, Oregon to set up a terrorist training camp, a 1998 kidnapping of tourists in Yemen that left four people dead, and from other terror crimes he is charged with helping conspire.
“Oregon, Afghanistan, Yemen — these were the defendant’s choices,” McGinley said. “Yet when he testified in this courtroom, he ran from all those choices and decisions that were at the core of his devotion to jihad. He ran, saying he was just misunderstood.”
“These people are his followers,” he added. “He’s the one common denominator in this criminal conduct spanning the globe.
Defense lawyer Jeremy Schneider, however, claimed prosecutors during the five-week trial took al-Masri’s words of hate against the West out of context in an attempt to sway jurors.
“A lot, if not the majority, of their evidence was his words, not his deeds,” Schneider said during his closing argument.
Al-Masri, 56, faces up to life in prison if convicted.
Jurors will begin deliberating Thursday.