A US judge sentenced British hate preacher Abu Hamza on Friday to life in prison after a jury convicted him on 11 charges of kidnapping and terrorism, calling his crimes "evil" and "barbaric." The hook-handed imam, blind in one eye and a double-hand amputee, became a tabloid bogeyman in Britain for preaching vitriolic, anti-American sermons at the Finsbury Park mosque in north London.
He stared impassively at the table and pursed his lips as Judge Katherine Forrest sentenced him to life behind bars, eight months after he was convicted by a jury on May 19 after a four-week trial. She told Abu Hamza he would be "committed to a sentence of life imprisonment in the custody of the United States attorney general and US marshalls," following a three-hour hearing.