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Abu Hamza al-Masri leads prayers outside the North London Central Mosque in 2003.Photo: Reuters
One of the 16 tourists kidnapped by Islamist terrorists in Yemen in 1998 provided a Manhattan jury on Tuesday with a terrifying description of how she and the rest of her British-led tour group were used as human shields.
As attacking Yemeni troops attempted their rescue, Margaret Thompson of Texas recalled one of her captors telling her group, “It’s goodbye to you all.”
Testifying in the Manhattan federal court terror trial of handless hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri, an emotional Thompson then confided how she felt at the time.
“I hoped it meant that they were going to release us,” she said, “but I feared it meant we were going to die.”
Prosecutors claim the one-eyed, hook-handed al-Masri, 56, helped conspire the Dec. 28, 1998 attack – which left four people dead — by providing terrorists with a satellite phone and advice.
Thompson, who walks with a noticeable limp, said she was shot in the leg during a crossfire, shattering her femur.
Prosecutors on Wednesday plan to call their star witness, Mary Quin, another hostage who survived the kidnapping. Quin interviewed al-Masri at his London mosque nearly two years after being kidnapped about his alleged involvement for a book she wrote about her ordeal.
Quinn’s taped meeting with al-Masri is credited with helping the government pursue its case against the hate preacher.
Al-Masri is expected to take the stand in his own defense shortly after Quin testifies
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