Handless hate preacher Abu Hamza al-Masri was living “on the wrong side of morality” — working as a bouncer for a London strip club — until his first wife led him on a path to jihad.
Testifying at his terror trial in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, the one-eyed, Egyptian-born cleric said he married a non-Muslim Brit in the early ’80s who hated his “not very respectful lifestyle.” So she sought advice from his Islamic friends.
“They told her, ‘If you ask him to teach you Islam, he will spend more time with you,’” testified al-Masri, 56.
The extra time the couple spent studying Islam didn’t salvage the marriage — but did lead al-Masri on the path to become a well-known imam, he said.
The thrice-married al-Masri didn’t say why they divorced, but ex-wife Valerie Olga Macias has blamed their 1984 split on the cleric’s alleged affair with a hooker.
Al-Masri, bereft of his hook-like prosthetic, raised his right stump to be sworn in before testifying.
Asked to define “jihad,” he said, “to struggle in the cause of God.”
Defense lawyer Joshua Dratel brought up previous comments al-Masri made about it being OK to lie to non-Muslims.
But al-Masri said he’s “no stranger to prison” and would rather stay incarcerated than lie “under oath.” “If my freedom comes at the expense of my dignity and beliefs, I don’t want it,” he said.
Al-Masri took the stand after gripping testimony from the government’s star witness, Mary Quin.
Quin, 59, one of 16 tourists kidnapped in 1998 by Islamist terrorists in Yemen, described how she escaped her captors while being used as a human shield — and then two years later got al-Masri to admit his role in the conspiracy.
“At one point, I could feel the bullets come so close to my face that I could feel the air move,” said the New Zealander.
Yemeni troops attempted a rescue, so the cowardly terrorists lined up their hostages atop a sandy berm. They spent a harrowing two hours as shields for their captors while bullets flew all around them.
Quin managed to escape after a terrorist guarding her with an AK-47 was wounded and she wrestled the rifle from him.
“He was still holding on to it, so I put my foot down on his head and that gave me the leverage to get the gun out of his hand,” Quin told rapt jurors.
She said she tracked down al-Masri at his London mosque in October 2000 and interviewed him for a book she would later write about the ordeal. The taped 45-minute interview is credited with helping the government pursue its case.
Besides conspiring with the kidnappers, al-Masri is accused of setting up a terrorist training camp in Oregon and committing other terror crimes. He faces life in prison if convicted.
His testimony continues Thursday.