London: The BBC has apologised to Britain’s Queen after revealing a private conversation held a few years ago that she raised concerns about Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri with a previous government.
The BBC regretted the breach of confidence after its security correspondent Frank Gardner reported the Queen’s comments.
“This morning on the Today (radio) programme our correspondent Frank Gardner revealed details of a private conversation which took place some years ago with the queen,” a BBC spokesman said, according to AFP.
“The conversation should have remained private and the BBC and Frank deeply regret this breach of confidence. It was wholly inappropriate.
“Frank is extremely sorry for the embarrassment caused and has apologised to the palace.”
On Monday, a final appeal by Abu Hamza and four other terror suspects was rejected by the European Court of Human Rights after a long legal battle.
Abu Hamza, the former imam of the Finsbury Park mosque in north London, was jailed in Britain for seven years in 2006 for inciting followers to murder non-believers.
But Gardner, the BBC’s security correspondent, reported that the queen had quizzed the previous government before Hamza’s initial arrest in 2004 as to why he was still a free man.
“The queen was pretty upset that there was no way to arrest him, she couldn’t understand why,” Gardner said.
“This is a conversation we had a little while ago and she did say that she had mentioned to — I don’t know which home secretary (interior minister) it was at the time — that was there not some law he had broken?”
Buckingham Palace refused to comment.
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