Hate preacher Abu Hamza is to be given a new set of rubber hands - at cost of over $19,000 to the US taxpayer.
The suspected al-Qaida cheerleader has been told he will not be able to have his usual metal hooks while awaiting trial on terrorism charges.
U.S. authorities consider the hooks a security risk and have refused to hand them back to Hamza after he arrived in New York over the weekend following his extradition from Britain.
Scroll down for video
This courtroom drawing shows accused terrorist Abu Hamza al-Masri, centre, in Manhattan federal court in New York, today with his stumps clearly exposed
During his initial court appearance his lawyer Sabrina Shroff asked a judge to return the metal hooks - but was turned down
Hamza, who is being held in the top security Manhattan Metropolitan Correction Centre in New York city, is having to eat all his food through a straw.
More...
Damian Lewis feared he was going to get his 'head pulverized' after he was confronted over his terrorist role in Homeland
Former Portsmouth FC player is one of 11 alleged Islamic terrorists targeting Jews
Former prison official Jack Donson said: 'I know the corrections officers aren't going to be feeding him, that's for sure.'
Hand for a hook: The suspected al-Qaida cheerleader has been told he will not be able to have his usual metal hooks while awaiting trial on terrorism charges
Prison sources said the refusal to allow Hamza to have his hooks stems from a previous attack at the New York jail on a guard by a terrorism suspect.
In 2000 prison guard Louis Pepe was stabbed in the eye with a sharpened comb by Mamdouh Salim, a former top aide to Osama bin Laden.
US prison authorities will arrange for Hamza to be fitted with a new set of prosthetic hands in the coming weeks.
According to prison sources Hamza will be given a pair of cable operated rubber hands.
New York based prosthetic maker Arimed said the hands would be custom made for Hamza.
Non electric prosthetics costs between $5,000 and $8,000 each, while high spec models featuring sensors can cost up to $55,000.
Hamza, who faces months in jail before being put on trial, will be given the cheaper option, according to law enforcement sources.
'We have people on contract. We'd have someone come in a do it,' said a law enforcement source.
'The rule is you give the guy what they had before. Not anything better.'
Hamza lost his hands after mine exploded while he was fighting the Soviet army in Afghanistan.
Prison: Hamza is now being held in the top security Manhattan Metropolitan Correction Centre in New York City
In the dock: Hamza, pictured with his lawyer Jeremy Schneider, pleaded not guilty to terror charges in a New York court last week
He was extradited to the US after an eight year legal battle on terrorism charged stemming from attempting to open a terror camp in Oregon and assisting in the kidnapping of 16 tourists, including two Americans, in Yemen.
Traci Billingsley, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman, said she cannot provide specific information about individual inmates.
'In general, if an inmate arrives at any of our facilities with a prosthetic that we believe could pose a danger, it would not be permitted inside,' she said.
Billingsley added that the Hamza would be medically evaluated to determine if other devices would be appropriate.
John N. Billock, head of the Orthotics & Prosthetics Rehabilitation Engineering Centre in Warren, Ohio, and a pioneer in the field, said a hook for a hand would 'definitely be considered a weapon.'
'You could brutalize somebody with it,' he said. 'You can put somebody's eyes out or knock out their teeth.'
He said hooks are typically made of stainless steel or aluminum.
The price of prosthetics in place of hands can range from $15,000 to $100,000, he said.
While in Belmarsh prison awaiting extradition Hamza’s cell was fitted with special £650 taps so he could use them with his hooks.
The tough measures emerged as Hamza was formally arraigned on the 11 charges which saw him extradited from London to the US on Friday after eight years of resisting.
Yesterday the 54-year-old pleaded not guilty to facilitating violent jihad in Afghanistan and trying to set up a terrorist training camp in Oregon.
He also denied involvement in the 1998 kidnapping in Yemen of Western tourists in which three Britons and an Australian were killed.
Hamza appeared at Manhattan’s Federal Court wearing a navy blue jumpsuit with a brown T-shirt underneath, the standard garb of a high security prisoner at the ‘Supermax’ jail where he is being held.
Crackdown: In 2000 Mamdouh Salim (pictured), a former top aide to Osama bin Laden, stabbed a guard in the eye with a sharpened comb at the same prison
He was not wearing his hooks leaving the stumps clear for the public to see and spoke only once during the 30-minute hearing.
The scale of the investigation was also made clear by prosecutor John Cronan who revealed that the US District Attorney has 8,500 documents, four hard drives and 24 DVDs of evidence against Hamza.
Some of the evidence to be used in the trial may also come from British authorities, although Mr Cronan did not elaborate further.
According to the New York Post US taxpayers are outraged at the prospect of having to pay between £10,000 and £35,000 for a pair of prosthetic arms for Hamza.
Were he to claim his human rights were being infringed, prison staff would be forced to get him a non-threatening pair of rubber hands on cables - but he won’t get his hooks back.
A source added that with no hooks Hamza was almost certainly eating through a straw in jail because ‘the correction officers aren’t going to be feeding him, that’s for sure’.
Hamza’s laywer Jeremy Schneider said after the hearing that his client was having a ‘hard time’ in the grim Metropolitan Corrections Centre.
He added that as far as he understood it prison guards had been giving Hamza his hooks back for part of the day but not permanently.
Hamza was one of five people extradited to the US from Britain to face terrorism charges.
Adel Abdel Bary, 52, Khaled al-Fawwaz, 50, Syed Talha Ahsan, 33, and Babar Ahmad, 36, have all plead not guilty to the charges against them.
Hamza will next appear before the court on October 26.
A provisional trial date has been set for him on August 26 next year.
Hamza's attorney's statement as he pleads not guilty in U.S....
