Abu Hamza Due To Be Sentenced In New York

The radical preacher Abu Hamza will be sentenced in New York later after being found guilty of supporting terrorist organisations.

The 56-year-old faces life in prison for offences including seeking to establish an al Qaeda training camp in the US and aiding the taking of hostages in Yemen.

He will be sentenced before district judge Katherine Forrest at the Daniel Patrick Moynihan courthouse in Manhattan.

The sentencing is due to begin at 3pm UK time.

Hamza was convicted in May of 11 charges , including conspiring to set up a terror training camp in Oregon.

His lawyers have argued that he should be sent to a prison medical centre as he is too disabled to spend life in a high-security jail .

They say the court should consider Hamza's disabilities - including his amputated forearms, psoriasis, diabetes and high blood pressure - when handing down a sentence.

In papers submitted to the court, they also argued that he should not receive a life sentence.

In the 1990s Hamza led the Finsbury Park Mosque, where 11 September conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid reportedly attended.

Hamza denied ever having met the pair.

He later spread violent messages at the mosque following the 2001 attacks on America.

Hamza was jailed in Britain for seven years for soliciting murder and inciting racial hatred in 2006.