Jeremy Corbyn’s peace project backed by supporter of hate preacher Abu Hamza

Massoud Shadjareh, who opposed Hamza’s extradition, features in former UK Labour party leader’s video

Muslim cleric Abu Hamza was jailed for life in the US for terror offences. REUTERS/Ian Waldie

The former leader of the UK’s main opposition Labour Party launched a peace project featuring a supporter of hate preacher Abu Hamza.

Jeremy Corbyn launched the Peace and Justice Project this week with a publicity video starring Massoud Shadjareh, founder and chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission.

Mr Shadjareh spoke out against the 2006 conviction of Abu Hamza for inciting racial hatred and his extradition to the US on terror charges.

Abu Hamza was jailed for seven years in the UK for hate speeches in his time as imam at Finsbury Park mosque in north London and in 2015 he was jailed for life in the US.

The video shows Mr Shadjareh endorsing the project.

“We welcome this initiative and we hope that it will address the desperate needs of those who are facing injustice around the world,” he says.

In 2012, the commission called Abu Hamza’s extradition “a dirty mark in British judicial history”.

"The fact that Abu Hamza had to be shipped to the US confirms a dual system of justice in Britain by which European human rights standards do not apply to Muslims, and politicians can shop around to look for jurisdictions where they can be more easily prosecuted," Mr Shadjareh said, according to the Daily Mail.

Mr Corbyn was briefly suspended from the Labour Party in October after he played down a report that detailed serious failings in the party's handling of anti-Semitism complaints under his leadership.

Mr Corbyn said the number of complaints in his four and a half years as leader was “dramatically overstated” and insisted he was “not part of the problem”.