London: Anjem Choudary, a radical Islamist preacher with dual British and Pakistani nationality, was on Tuesday jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years behind bars by a UK court for directing a terrorist organisation.
Choudary, 57, had been found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) and encouraging support for the proscribed organisation through online meetings.
Sentencing him at the same court to a prison term means he would be in his 80s by the time he can seek parole.
Justice Mark Wall told Choudary his behaviour was of the “highest culpability”.
“Organisations such as yours normalise violence in pursuit of an ideological cause. They drive wedges between people who would otherwise live together in peaceful co-existence,” said Judge Wall.
During a six-week trial which concluded last week, the jury heard how Choudary helped found ALM in 1996 and spent nearly 30 years running its operations under dozens of different names.
ALM was first proscribed, or banned, by the UK in 2006 under the name Al Ghurabaa. In 2010, ALM was included in the ban as an alternate name.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Choudary was still acting as its leader as late as July 2023, when he was arrested, making online speeches to a US-based offshoot called Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS). That group was infiltrated by undercover law enforcement officers in the US, who were present at online lectures in 2022 and 2023. The court heard that Choudary said he viewed being called an extremist as a “medallion” during lectures.
Choudary was released early from a five-year sentence for inviting support for the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group in October 2018 under licence conditions that prevented him from using the internet until July 2021. But within days of the conditions expiring, he began issuing press releases on WhatsApp and Telegram from his home in Ilford, his trial heard.
Following a joint investigation by the Metropolitan Police, the New York Police Department, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, he was arrested and charged with terrorism offences.
It coincided with the arrest of Khaleed Hussein, 29, of Edmonton, Canada, who was detained while arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport in July last year. He was also found guilty of membership of a proscribed organisation and jailed on Tuesday for five years, with an additional year on a “supervision licence” after his release.
“It is clear that both men were members of Al-Muhajiroun and both men had a radical mindset. Anjem Choudary was responsible for directing an international terrorist organisation and Hussain provided him support,” said Bethan David, Head of the CPS Counter Terrorism Division.
“This organisation has been banned in the UK since 2010 because of the danger it poses. Such extremist views are a threat to our society, and I am pleased the jury found him guilty of his crimes,” she said.
Police in Britain, the US and Canada ran the investigations as they became concerned that Choudary was seeking to recruit a new generation of younger followers.
“For over 30 years Anjem Choudary has been a pretty constant presence in counter-terrorism. His influence as a radicaliser is well known but the reality of that impact around the world is that there are individuals who have conducted terrorist attacks or travelled for terrorist purposes as a result of Anjem Choudary’s radicalising effect on them,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met Police’s Counter-Terrorism Command.
