How French spies plotted to kill Abu Hamza on a London street: Security forces were intending to shoot hate cleric with rifle before blaming far-right organisation

French spies concerned radical cleric was inspiring Algerian terrorists

They feared the militants would attack the 1998 World Cup

Plan was to send hate messages to Hamza from Nazi group Combat 18

Officials would then shoot him dead and let the group take the blame

Another plan was to kidnap him and take him to France on a ferry

French spies plotted to assassinate Abu Hamza on a London street in the late 90s. The plan was to send him death threats claiming to be from a far-right organisation before shooting him

French spies were so fed up with Britain harbouring terrorists that they hatched a plot to assassinate Abu Hamza on a London street, it was claimed last night.



Security officials were intending to kill the hook-handed cleric with a rifle while posing as members of the extremist group Combat 18.



The far-Right organisation would then have been left to take the blame for his death.



The French intelligence service, Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), also hatched a separate plot to kidnap Hamza from outside his west London home and bundle him on a ferry to France.



They were concerned Algerian terrorists were planning an attack on the 1998 football World Cup and wanted to remove the hate preacher from circulation.



His ranting sermons outside the Finsbury Park mosque in north London were considered an inspiration to Algerian fanatics. The capital became known as ‘Londonistan’ – with French officials concerned the UK police and security services were not doing enough to combat Islamist extremism.



The claims are made by the HOPE not Hate anti-extremist think-tank and campaign group in a report on banned terror group al-Muhajiroun, which had strong ties to Hamza.



The report’s author, Nick Lowles, writes: ‘One plot hatched by French intelligence that has, until now, not previously come to light, was the idea of assassinating Abu Hamza in London.

‘The plan was to impersonate the British Nazi group Combat 18 and then allow them to take the blame.



‘In the immediate aftermath of the London nail-bombings, the French considered sending death threats in the style of C18 and then killing him with the same type of weaponry that the group was thought to possess.



'However, as with the kidnap plan, the assassination attempt was aborted and it is unclear how advanced the planning of either idea progressed.’



The French intelligence service also hatched a separate plot to kidnap Hamza from outside his west London home and bundle him on a ferry to France.

On the kidnapping plot, in the build-up to the 1998 World Cup, Mr Lowles, a respected and long-standing campaigner, writes: ‘Angered by the inaction of Special Branch and MI5 in the UK, there was serious talk of [the French] taking matters into their own hands.

'He would be nabbed on the street, forced into the back of a van and then driven to Dover and snuck on to a French ferry.



‘It is also known that a team of assassins from Draco, a DGSE unit, was considering taking out senior terrorists.’



The report said al-Muhajiroun, co-founded by hate preacher Anjem Choudary – can be linked to jihad and terror attacks at home and abroad. Seventy people convicted of terrorism or terrorist-related offences in the UK, or who have died abroad over the past 14 years, have been linked to the organisation.



The group has allegedly sent hundreds of British citizens to war zones across the globe, including 50 to 80 people fighting in Syria. Several hundred al-Muhajiroun volunteers have travelled to train or fight in Pakistan or Afghanistan.



The group is also said to have encouraged supporters to go to Somalia and Yemen – with several rising to leading positions in Somali terror group al-Shabaab.



Mr Lowles says he has identified links between the infamous ‘White Widow’ – Samantha Lewthwaite – and Anjem Choudary.



Neither France’s Interior Ministry, nor the DGSE intelligence service, would comment on the alleged plan to kill Hamza, who is in a US jail awaiting trial on charges of running a terrorist training camp.

