LONDON (AFP) - Radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri was charged by a British court with 16 offences including incitement to murder Jews, scuppering a request from the United States for him to face trial there on terrorism-related allegations.
"Extradition proceedings will be adjourned until the British case is dealt with, whether the charges are dropped or a trial takes place," a spokesman for Britain's Crown Prosecution Service told AFP.
Hamza, 47, an Egyptian-born British national, was charged at high-security Belmarsh Magistrates Court in southeast London with 10 counts of "soliciting murder".
This little-used charge, covered by an 1861 criminal law, relates to inciting others to murder unspecified people.
In Hamza's case it relates to alleged incitement by the cleric at public meetings to kill non-Muslims, specifically Jews, according to several of the charges.
He was also charged with four counts of using threatening, abusive or insulting behaviour with intent to stir up racial hatred; one count of possessing threatening, abusive or insulting sound recordings; and one count of possessing a terrorist document.
The British charges means the one-eyed, hook-handed cleric will not be sent in the foreseeable future to the United States, where judicial authorities want to try him on 11 terrorism-related charges.
Hamza was first detained in May following the US request and was then formally arrested under British laws in August. According to newspaper reports, the US authorities have been pushing hard for Hamza to be extradited rather than face a British trial.
Hamza gained public attention for his speeches at a mosque in Finsbury Park, north London.
After being banned from giving sermons there, he took his preaching out to the street in front of the mosque, before his arrest at the request of the US authorities.
His extradition to the United States would have been potentially difficult in any case, since he could potentially have been executed if convicted of the US charges.
Britain has a long-established policy of refusing to extradite its nationals if there is a chance they might face the death penalty.