A radical British Muslim cleric convicted of kidnapping and terror charges in the United States with the help of a testimony by a New Zealand businesswoman has been sentenced to life in prison.
Abu Hamza, 56, whose real name is Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, was sentenced in the US District Court in New York on Friday (US time), after he was convicted by a jury in May. He had earlier been extradited from the UK.
New Zealander Mary Quin, one of 16 tourists snatched by Islamist kidnappers in Yemen in 1998, gave evidence in the trial that Abu Hamza justified the kidnapping and killing of civilians in defence of Islam.
Ms Quin had interviewed him in October 2000 while researching her book on her ordeal, Kidnapped in Yemen.
She said Abu Hamza told her the chief kidnapper, Abu Hasan, called him during the kidnapping and advised him to stay back to avoid being killed during the Yemen army's rescue operation.
Four hostages were killed in that two-hour operation.
Abu Hamza, who is blind in one eye and had both hands blown off in an explosion in Afghanistan, faced charges which included trying to set up a jihad training camp in Oregon and sending support and fighters to al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
He has already served six years in Britain for inciting hatred and soliciting murder.
At the time of his conviction in the US Ms Quin said justice had prevailed for her and the other tourists.
At the sentencing Judge Katherine Forrest said she had thought long and hard about the severity of the sentence, for a complicated man who was a loved father of nine but who showed no remorse.
"Evil comes in many forms but doesn't always show itself immediately in all its darkness," Forrest said, AP reported.
Ms Quin is chief executive of the Callaghan Innovation Fund in New Zealand.
She and cricketer Brendon McCullum were named as the New Zealand Herald's 2014 New Zealanders of the Year.
Ms Quin has previously extended her "heartfelt thanks to the investigators and attorneys whose persistence, hard work and commitment to justice over more than 15 years resulted in the extradition and trial of Abu Hamza".
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