Author: Dan Mcdougall
Publication: The Scotsman
Date: February 25, 2003
URL: http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/international.cfm?id=234582003
Scots-based supporters of an Islamic
militant on trial for soliciting the murder of Americans attempted to undermine
his Old Bailey trial by offering the judge £50,000 in cash, it emerged
yesterday.
Details of the attempted bribe were
revealed in court yesterday after self- proclaimed Islamic Sheikh, Abdullah
el-Faisal, 39, was found guilty of three charges of soliciting murder by
backing the use of chemical weapons and trying to recruit British Muslims
for terrorist training camps. In a case that made legal history, father-of-four
el-Faisal, a Jamaican who converted to Islam on his 16th birthday, was
found guilty of soliciting the murder of Jews, Americans and Hindus during
a series of lectures at universities and mosques around Britain.
During the trial, a letter was sent
to senior Old Bailey judge Peter Beaumont, the Common Serjeant of London,
containing the offer of a £50,000 bribe if he halted proceedings
against el-Faisal. This information wasn't disclosed to the jury for fear
of disrupting the case. The letter, believed to have been posted from the
Glasgow area, is currently in the possession of anti-terrorist officers
from Scotland Yard, who, helped by Strathclyde Police, are investigating
its origins.
A spokesman for Strathclyde Police
confirmed the inquiry, but refused to specify if the police were following
up any immediate leads.
El-Faisal was arrested a year ago
by police investigating British links with al- Qaeda terrorists after two
of his lecture tapes were found in a car belonging to a man arrested in
Dorset under the anti-terrorism act. Special Branch inquiries later found
that el-Faisal had direct links to a Brixton mosque and with an al- Qaeda
suspect arrested last year in the US.
During the trial, detectives claimed
they were shocked at the anti-American rhetoric on the tapes, recorded
at lectures and study circles el-Faisal held at mosques and colleges around
the country. Copies of more talks were found at the preacher's home, where
he copied and sold them to specialist book shops. The court heard one recording
had a picture of the burning World Trade Centre on the cover.
Yesterday, as he postponed sentencing
until 7 March, Judge Beaumont said there was nothing to suggest el-Faisal
knew anything about the letter but added it was essential the author was
found. He told the court: "The letter appears to originate from Scotland
and might be interpreted as containing an inducement intended to pervert
the course of justice. It might, on the other hand, be the work of someone
who has intended to make mischief. There is nothing to suggest that this
letter has been written by or at the instigation of, or even with the knowledge
of, the defendant."
After the verdict, Deputy Assistant
Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Squad,
said: "We simply do not know how many young, impressionable people may
have gone abroad and never returned. This case was nothing to do with freedom
of speech, but everything to do with racial hatred and religious bigotry
and encouraging people to commit acts of terrorism."
