BRITAIN: Supporters of a Muslim cleric created uproar at the Old Bailey yesterday, shouting "Allah is the only judge" and punching their fists in the air as their leader was jailed for inciting murder.
Judge Peter Beaumont ordered the public gallery at the central criminal court to be cleared after pandemonium broke out when he sentenced Jamaican-born Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal to nine years in jail.
Faisal, a former supporter of Osama bin Laden, had been convicted of urging his followers to kill non-believers in a holy war.
"Instead of calming fears you fanned the flames of hostility," Judge Beaumont told him before the public gallery outburst. "You blatantly set out to stir up racial hatred." Jamaican-born Faisal (39) was convicted last month on three charges of incitement to murder.
He was also found guilty then of three counts of stirring up racial hatred through the use of threatening and abusive words, both in person and through recordings.
Faisal, who was also ordered to be deported from Britain on release, was arrested by British anti-terrorist police last year. He had urged his followers to use chemical and nuclear weapons in an Islamic holy war, the court had heard.
During February's trial, prosecutor Mr David Perry said: "He encouraged his audiences to wage war against non-believers, in particular Hindus, Jews and any citizen of the United States of America."
Faisal made a series of tapes - with names such as Jihad and No Peace with Jews - which were distributed throughout Britain for sale in Islamic bookshops.
One of the tapes included a cover picture and the voice of bin Laden, head of al-Qaeda.
In his defence, Faisal said he only preached what he had learned from the Koran. He also said that while he once regarded bin Laden as a hero for the Muslim people, he believed the Saudi-born fugitive had "lost the path" since September 11th.
After the verdict, it emerged that the judge had almost halted the trial half-way through after an apparent attempt to bribe him with £50,000.
The matter has been referred to police but there was no indication Faisal was connected.
Faisal, a former devout Christian, converted to Islam as a teenager and went on to study the faith in Saudi Arabia. He moved to Britain in the 1990s and later became Imam of the Brixton Mosque in south London.
Faisal, who was cleared of three other charges, was convicted under the Offences Against the Persons Act, a 140-year-old British law rarely invoked in modern times. - (Reuters)