Radical Islamist cleric extradited to the US from Britain pleads not guilty to charges and will face trial in August next year
Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical Islamist cleric extradited to the US from Britain, has pleaded not guilty to charges that he conspired with American citizens to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
Abu Hamza entered the plea shortly before US district judge Katherine Forrest set an August 2013 trial date. Abu Hamza is also accused of helping to abduct 16 hostages, two of them American tourists, in Yemen in 1998.
Earlier, two other men brought from Britain to face terrorism charges made their first appearance before a New York judge. Their trial was set for October next year.
Khaled al-Fawwaz and Adel Abdul Bary denied participating in the bombings of embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in August 1998 which killed 224 people, including 12 Americans.
They were indicted in a case that also named Osama bin Laden.