UK taxpayer to fork out 800,000 pounds as legal fees for hate cleric Hamza
London, May 18 (ANI): The UK taxpayer is all set to fork out 800,000 pounds as legal fees for jailed hate preacher Abu Hamza.
Two years ago, hook-handed Hamza was ordered pay a million pounds as defence costs, but he has paid nothing so far.
"If nothing else is found, it means the taxpayer will have to pay 800,000 pounds for the shortfall," The Sun quoted a Whitehall source, as saying.
The trial judge said a house linked to Hamza, who pleads poverty, should be sold as a contribution.
Legal officials face trouble in seizing the house, as Hamza, 51, claims it belongs to his sister, who lives in Egypt.
Even if the 1930s property in Greenford, West London, is grabbed it will probably fetch only 200,000 pounds instead of the original 235,000-pound value.
A Legal Services Commission spokesman said: "We will go to court to apply for the seizure of the property. We are waiting for a date."
Hamza, jailed for seven years in 2006 for soliciting murder, is in London's Belmarsh Prison and is fighting extradition to the US.
"This is Abu Hamza continuing to thumb his nose," Tory MP Patrick Mercer said. (ANI)