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Hamza 'brainwashed our boy' claim family
By Geoff Fox JULY 7 suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer was brainwashed by cleric Abu Hamza, according to his family.
Tanweer, from Beeston, Leeds, was among scores of Muslims who lapped up Hamza's sermons of hate at the notorious Finsbury Park Mosque in north London.
Last night, Tanweer's uncle Bashir Ahmed, 65, laid the blame for his nephew's decision to blow up the Aldgate Tube bomb at the door of Hamza, who was jailed for seven years at the Old Bailey on Tuesday after being convicted of a string of race hate and terror charges.
"No child could have thought of 7/7 by themselves," said Mr Ahmed. "My nephew was influenced by someone spreading the wrong message."
Tanweer and cell ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, are thought to have visited the mosque in 2002, with the Metropolitan police yesterday confirming they were investigating the claims.
"The people who made Shehzad do the things he did are influencing thousands of other young men to hate and kill and they need to be stopped."
Mr Ahmed's attack on Hamza comes as new evidence reveals the cleric first came to the attention of the Crown Prosecution Service seven years ago.
Scotland Yard first sent a file to the CPS in March 1999 and then again in June 2003, but on each occasion the material was judged to be "clearly insufficient" to support criminal charges. It was not until Scotland Yard submitted a third file in June 2004, following Hamza's arrest on an extradition warrant from the United States, that the CPS decided to prosecute.
Shadow home secretary David Davis said last night: "It would appear the only reason Abu Hamza was actually prosecuted was because the US was seeking his extradition."
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In a statement yesterday, the CPS and the police hailed Hamza's convictions as the "successful outcome of close and painstaking" joint work.
It is understood another of the suicide bombers, Jermaine Lindsey, 19, who was originally from Huddersfield, also attended one of Hamza's sermons outside the mosque.
Detectives are believed to be examining surveillance footage to establish if the fourth bomber, Hasib Hussain, 18, from Holbeck, had ever been among the crowds at Finsbury Park, which became a breeding ground for terrorism during the six years that Hamza held a "controlling influence" there.
Dozens of anti-terrorism investigations led detectives back to the north London building.
Al-Qaida suspect Haroon Rashid Aswat, 30, who grew up in Dewsbury, has also been linked by security sources to Abu Hamza. Aswat, arrested in Zambia and brought to the UK, is accused of trying to set up a terrorist training camp in the US and two days ago lost the first round of his battle against extradition to the US.
geoff.fox@ypn.co.uk
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Sunday 12 February 2012
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