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Ignore media on Hamza, jury told
 Abu Hamza al-Masri is former imam of Finsbury Park mosque in London. YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England -- The jury trying Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri on race hate charges -- including soliciting murder -- has been warned by a judge to ignore what they had read or heard about him in the media. "This man is someone who has been the object of a fair amount of press coverage -- much of it critical," Mr. Justice Hughes said Wednesday on the first day of Hamza's trial at the Old Bailey in London. "You are not interested in what anyone has accurately or inaccurately said about him in the past," the UK's Press Association quoted Hughes as saying. He told the jury of seven men and five women to concentrate only on the evidence they heard in court. He also warned jurors not to "go hunting on the Internet" for material. His remarks were made before prosecutor David Perry began to open the case against Hamza. Perry told the court Hamza had a number of aliases, including Mustafa Kamel Mustafa, Abu Hamza and Abu Hamza al-Masri. "There is nothing sinister or improper about that, but I will call him either Sheik or Mr. Hamza," Perry said, adding that "sheik" was an Arab title used for a man regarded as a leader in the Muslim community. The former imam of Finsbury Park mosque in north London faces nine charges of soliciting murder under the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861. In each, Egyptian-born Hamza, who has no hands and only one eye, is accused of soliciting others to murder non-believers at public meetings. Four of the charges specify that Hamza encouraged others to murder Jews. He also faces four charges under the Public Order Act of 1986 of "using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behavior with the intention of stirring up racial hatred." A further charge says Hamza was in possession of eight video and audio recordings and that he intended to distribute them to stir up racial hatred. He also faces one charge under section 58 of the Terrorism Act that relates to the alleged possession of a document which contained information "of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism." Hamza denies all the charges, which were alleged to have been committed before May 2004. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. 
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