British police launched their own terrorism case today against radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, already jailed in London under a US arrest warrant.
"We can confirm that a 47-year-old man was arrested this morning under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," a police spokesman said.
Police sources confirmed the man was Abu Hamza, who was already being held at London's Belmarsh high security prison fighting extradition to the United States when he was formally arrested and brought to a London police station.
Abu Hamza, who lost both hands and an eye in Afghanistan fighting Soviet forces, has been indicted in the United States on 11 counts including having a role in a 1998 hostage taking in Yemen in which four people died.
The US indictment also said he helped set up a "terrorist training camp" in the US state of Oregon.
The spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said the British case was "a totally separate UK domestic inquiry that has nothing to do with the ongoing extradition procedures against this man."
Egyptian-born Abu Hamza, also known as Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, has concerned British and US authorities for several years by preaching in praise of Osama bin Laden and the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Britain accused him of supporting terrorism and stripped him of British citizenship last year, but until now had not launched a criminal case against him.
Authorities shut down his Finsbury Park mosque in a North London immigrant neighbourhood, but he continued to preach on the street in front of the building until he was arrested in May under the US extradition warrant.
British court documents in other anti-terrorism cases have described Abu Hamza as one of the two most influential anti-Western Muslim preachers in the country.
The other, Abu Qatada, has been held without charge under emergency powers that apply only to foreigners.