BBC apologizes to Queen over cleric leak

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published 13 years ago

LONDON: Britain's BBC apologised to Queen Elizabeth on Tuesday after a senior journalist reported her private views about one of the country's best known terrorism suspects, an embarrassing disclosure for a monarch who avoids public political statements.

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner broadcast details of a private conversation with the queen during which she supposedly told him she had complained to the last government about radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri.

The queen was said to be upset that Britain had not arrested him after he preached fiery anti-Western sermons outside a mosque in London after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

That was awkward for a head of state who has no political or executive role and is expected to stay neutral in public. The queen has never given a media interview and typically avoids controversial topics in her speeches.

The Egyptian-born cleric lost an appeal in the European courts on Monday and faces extradition from the country to the United States. Washington accuses him of supporting al Qaeda, aiding a kidnapping in Yemen and plotting to open a U.S. training camp for militants. - Reuters