Fury as terrorist Abu Hamza's £1.7m family home in west London gets £70k facelift paid for by taxpayers

Fury as terrorist Abu Hamza's £1.7m family home in west London gets £70k facelift paid for by taxpayers

The home in Shepherd’s Bush will see solar panels and loft insulation installed - with Hammersmith and Fulham Council obliged to maintain it
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Convicted terrorist Abu Hamza’s family home is receiving a £70,000 facelift, paid for by British taxpayers.

The £1.7 million Edwardian home, based in a conservation area of Shepherd’s Bush, will see new windows and doors installed, as well as solar panels and loft insulation.

Hamza’s wife, Najat Chaffe, is the only person registered at the five-bedroom council house - with the hate cleric serving a life sentence in a US jail.

Ms Chaffe’s “tenancy for life” deal means that the Labour-run Hammersmith and Fulham Council cannot kick her out, and have an obligation to maintain it.

She moved into the house in 1995, claiming they had separated, and Hamza’s eight children were raised in the property.

Three of his sons have since served jail sentences for offences related to drugs, money laundering and fraud.

Radical cleric: Abu Hamza
Radical cleric Abu Hamza

Hamza, the hook-handed former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque, never officially lived at the address but was seen there on a number of occasions before his first arrest in 2004.

Hamza, 68, was jailed in the UK in 2006 for inciting racial hatred and soliciting murder.

He was extradited to the US in 2014 for plotting the kidnap of 16 tourists in Yemen, which resulted in the deaths of four hostages.

He was sentenced to life without parole by a New York court, and is currently in a maximum-security prison in Colorado.

Hammersmith and Fulham council’s Conservative opposition leader Jose Afonso said: “This is a disgusting waste of public money.

“Residents will be appalled to know that not only are we housing the families of terrorists, we are doing so in five-bedroom houses and paying for extensive upgrades.”

The council said it was bound by law to upgrade around 1,000 properties.

Planning permission has been submitted, but not yet approved, for works due for completion before the end of the decade.

Original source Fury as terrorist Abu Hamza's £1.7m family home in west London gets £70k facelift paid for by taxpayers

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