Accused 'preached on rape and murder by Scots force'

Published on Tuesday 5 February 2008 21:10

A RADICAL Muslim preacher told worshippers at a mosque that Black Watch soldiers and US troops would rape and murder Iraqi women and children, a court heard yesterday.

Abu Izzadeen, 32, was speaking in November 2004, the night after US forces began their controversial assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah during the holy month of Ramadan.

Kingston Crown Court heard that he was one of eight men to speak at Regent's Park mosque in central London, urging support for terrorist forces. He and his fellow speakers all face a charge of fundraising for the purposes of terrorism. Five of the men, including Izzadeen, are also accused of inciting acts of terrorism abroad.

A jury yesterday watched further selections from a DVD of the men's speeches discovered by police in 2006 following a raid on the former flat of Omar Bakri.

Bakri, who left Britain for Lebanon in 2004, was the former leader of the Al-Muhajiroun, an extremist group which believed in the creation of a Muslim world and the use of force to achieve this end.

In the recording, Izzadeen who is being tried under the name of Omar Brooks, can be seen, his head draped in a traditional white headscarf.

Mr Laidlaw said: "In Iraq, Brooks told the audience, the Americans would rape and kill women and children and they would be assisted by soldiers from the Black Watch regiment."

The trial continues.