Hamza forced to hand over hook (From Basingstoke Gazette)
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Hamza forced to hand over hook
5:52pm Saturday 13th October 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013
US prison chiefs believe Abu Hamza could use his hook as a weapon
Abu Hamza is being forced to turn in his prosthetic arms every night in jail because United States prison chiefs believe the metal hook on one limb could be used as a weapon.
The militant Islamic Egyptian preacher was extradited to from the UK to face terrorism charges.
Hamza, also known by the name Abu Hamza al-Masri, is being prosecuted in New York under the name Mustafa Kamel Mustafa.
His lawyer complained that giving up the arms leaves his client helpless for hours.
He is expected to be fitted with a new prosthetic in the shape of a hand at American taxpayers' expense of more than 15,000 US dollars (£9,330).
Hamza faces charges of conspiring with Seattle men to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
He is also accused of helping abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
He has pleaded not guilty.
