Anjem Choudary, the notorious Islamist preacher, is facing life in prison with a minimum term of 28 years for directing a secret terrorist propaganda operation over the course of ten years.
Choudary, 57, from Ilford, East London, helped found al-Muhajiroun (ALM) in 1996 and spent nearly 30 years running their operations under dozens of different names.
Members have been linked to at least 16 different terrorist plots and senior members travelled to Syria, where Siddhartha Dhar and Reza Haque, joined an ISIS execution squad.
Choudary himself was an associate of Woolwich killer Michael Adebolajo, London Bridge terrorist Khuram Butt and Fishmongers’ Hall attacker Usman Khan.
He celebrated the 9/11 attacks as a ‘towering day in history’ and Omar Bakri Muhammad, the group’s leader, labelled the 7/7 attackers the ‘fantastic four’ before he fled the UK in August 2005, claiming he had shut down the organisation nine months earlier.
Anjem Choudary , 57, from Ilford, East London , helped found al-Muhajiroun (ALM) in 1996 and spent nearly 30 years running their operations under dozens of different names
Choudary was arrested at his home in London on July 17 last year, almost five years after his release from prison
Choudary and Hussein at Woolwich Crown Court, London, where they were sentenced earlier today
Choudary will spend more than 26 years in jail in total due to the time he has already spent in custody, meaning he will not be released before the age of 85, the judge said.
Sentencing at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday, Mr Justice Mark Wall told Choudary he was ‘front and centre in running a terrorist organisation’.
The judge also said that he ‘encouraged young men into radical activity’.
The judge said: ‘These are offences which cause the risk of significant loss of life.’
Justice Wall told of ‘chilling’ trial evidence about Choudary’s denial of the holocaust and jokes about the 9/11 terror attacks.
He added: ‘I do not sentence you for holding those views, but the fact that you genuinely hold such extreme views coupled with your history of unlawful behaviour is an indication of the danger you pose into the future.
‘I am sure that you will continue to preach your message of hate and division when or if you are given the opportunity to do so in the future.
‘You are not someone who can be diverted from that course by any form of intervention.
‘You pose a significant risk of causing serious harm to members of the public into the future by committing further specified offences such as this.’
He went on: ‘Organisations such as yours normalise violence in the pursuit of an ideological cause. Their existence give individuals who are members of them the courage to commit acts that otherwise they might not do.
‘They drive a wedge between people who would and could live together in peaceful co-existence.’
The judge labelled Choudary’s views ‘entrenched and abhorrent to many right-thinking people’, adding Choudary is an ‘intelligent man and a persuasive speaker’ to those open to ‘messages of hate’, saying he possesses ‘great determination’ in pursing his aims.
He continued: ‘It will be for the parole board to decide whether you are safe to release back into the community.
‘I cannot envisage them reaching such a decision without the most cogent evidence of a change of mindset by you. If they never form the view that you can safely be released, you will remain in prison for the rest of your life.’
Choudary took over as the leader in 2014 but was arrested and jailed himself four months later, for encouraging support for ISIS.
Police in Britain, the US and Canada had been running separate investigations as they became concerned that Choudary was seeking to recruit a new generation of younger followers (Pictured: Choudary speaking in 2012)
Choudary told his followers that ‘jihad is obliged upon us’ and said being described as Britain’s ‘number one radicaliser’ was a ‘badge of honour’ (Pictured: Choudary talking to supporters in 2011)
His licence conditions expired in July 2021 and he began trying to rebuild the organisation, delivering over 40 lectures in one year to audiences of up to 150 across the world and communicating directly with recruits as young at 14 on Whatsapp and Telegram.
Police in Britain, the US and Canada had been running separate investigations as they became concerned that Choudary was seeking to recruit a new generation of younger followers.
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner from the New York Police Department (NYPD), described how they sent their ‘crown jewel’ undercover officers to London to testify against Choudary, a ‘shamelessly prolific radicaliser.’
NYPD had placed two undercover officers, referred to as OP488 and OP377, in the group’s branch in New York, called the Islamic Thinkers’ Society.
In his first speech, recorded by NYPD undercover officers on June 12 2022, Choudary boasted that ‘so many people became shaheed alhamdulillah’ [martyrs, praise god].
Police officers in London worked with those in the US before entering Choudary’s home to arrest him last July
![Khalid Hussein, 29, a member of the Islamic Thinkers Society living in Edmonton, Canada, who idolised Choudary, helped him run an online magazine called al-Aseer [the prisoners]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/07/30/09/87932771-13687429-image-m-11_1722327417930.jpg)
Khalid Hussein, 29, a member of the Islamic Thinkers Society living in Edmonton, Canada, who idolised Choudary, helped him run an online magazine called al-Aseer [the prisoners]
He said he had been labelled ‘the number one radicaliser in Britain,’ adding: ‘That is a badge of honour for me. It’s a medallion on my chest. What do you want to call me? An extremist? Fanatic? All of these.’
In another recording on June 26, Choudary told them: ‘You know we always manage to escape prosecution. You know no one has ever been prosecuted in this country for being a member of al-Muhajiroun.’
In a discussion with members of the Islamic Thinkers’ Society on March 26 last year, he advised them to set up a series of different ‘platforms’ adding: ‘We ended up having loads of them – if you look in the Terrorist Act they listed about 15 of them – there’s another 45, we used to use, so this is just a style and means brother.’
He also encouraged followers to ‘fight the crusaders’ and told them, on February 19 last year: ‘There’s no doubt, jihad is obliged upon us.’
A week later, on February 26, Choudary told his audience: ‘Is terrorism part of the deen [faith]? Yes even more, horrifying is part of the deen, even to horrify the people.’
MI5 had bugged Choudary’s home in Ilford, East London and, in a conversation with his wife, Rubina Akhtar on March 22 last year, he told her: ‘That impact is there – al-Muhajiroun has gone down in history and that’s why they say 40 per cent of all things associated with us. The impact was phenomenal, global.’
The figure appears to be a reference to an entry on Choudary’s Wikipedia page.
Choudary was an associate of Woolwich killer Michael Adebolajo (pictured)
Adebolajo and co-conspirator Michael Adebowale murdered soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich in 2013
When interviewed by police, Choudary claimed his organisation ‘doesn’t exist’ in the UK
On April 30 last year, the covert listening devices picked up Choudary updating Bakri, who had recently been released from jail, on the members of the group and asking for advice on their next steps.
He spoke about his role as Bakri’s ‘naqib’ [deputy] and how he had taken on the role of the ‘caretaker emir’ [leader].
He stood trial alongside Khalid Hussein, 29, a member of the Islamic Thinkers Society living in Edmonton, Canada.
Hussein idolised Choudary, helped him run an online magazine called al-Aseer [the prisoners].
Hussein, who worked at a Co-Op petrol station and convenience, messaged Choudary on July 16 last year to arrange to meet him on his journey through London to Turkey to meet a Russian bride.
Choudary replied with some advice on the best tourist spots in South London, including the Cutty Sark, Greenwich Park and ‘quaint shopping nearby.’
He also added: ‘You are also not too far from Woolwich – the famous Lee Rigby issue.’
In a voice note sent to Choudary, Hussein said: ‘There is a lot of media stigma against al-Muhajiroun so I usually don’t advertise it.
‘But I’ve kind of gotten involved in this campaign and I just wanted to let you know, that this is who I am.’
He added: ‘Most people don’t know I’m part of al-Muhajiroun.’
Over the course of nearly 30 years, Anjem Choudary lived off benefits as he preached violent jihad, labelled fellow Muslims as apostates for voting and advocated for the establishment of an Islamic state in Britain.
He promised followers ‘free food, clothing, and shelter’ under an Islamic state adding: ‘You don’t have electricity? Here is free electricity. Here is free water. What else do you want? Do you want a salary? Here, take some money. There is no society like that.’
He was also linked to numerous terrorists, dating back to a group arrested in Crawley, West Sussex in March 2004 who were planning to blow up the Ministry of Sound nightclub using half a ton of ammonium nitrate and had links to the 7/7 bombers.
During the trial the jury was not aware that Khuram Butt, the leader of the attackers who killed eight people at London Bridge and Borough Market in June 2017, was said to be ‘like a lion out of a cage’ after meeting Choudary at his home.
Usman Khan, who killed two Cambridge students at a prisoners’ conference at Fishmongers’ Hall in November 2019 was another follower who had Choudary’s number on his mobile phone when he was jailed in 2010.
After Choudary endorsed ISIS, large numbers of his associates travelled to Syria, including Siddhartha Dhar, a key lieutenant who appeared in an ISIS execution video in January 2016, shooting a prisoner in the back of the head.
ALM also opened up branches abroad including Shariah4Belgium, which was said to have played a role in radicalising the Paris attackers who killed 130 people in November 2015.
In the US, almost a dozen members or associates of the Islamic Thinkers’ Society were convicted of support for terrorism and a former member called Samir Khan moved to Yemen from where he ran a notorious online magazine for al-Qaeda called Inspire, designed to encourage lone actor attacks in the West.
Choudary was finally arrested when Hussein arrived from Canada on July 17 last year.
Interviewed by police, he insisted that his lectures were nothing to do with al-Muhajiroun, adding: ‘When I say ‘us’ or ‘we’, I am always talking about me, I am talking about my experience, I am talking about people in the UK. In no shape or form am I ever addressing them in the use of those pronouns.’
He was found guilty of directing a terrorist organisation and encouraging support for a proscribed organisation.
Hussein was found guilty of membership of a proscribed organisation.
During the sentencing hearing, defence barrister Paul Hynes KC said that by the time Choudary had started directing ALM, it was ‘little more than a husk of an organisation’ and he was not ‘gathering the masses to join’.
ITS was infiltrated by undercover law enforcement officers in the US, who were present at online lectures in 2022 and 2023, held over the Element messenger platform.
ALM was proscribed as a terror organisation in the UK in 2010, though it was said in court the group has continued to exist under various names.
A senior security official said last week’s conviction was a ‘significant moment’, adding the evidence presented in court showed ‘Choudary’s continued involvement in supporting terrorism and radicalising others’.
Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Metropolitan Police’s counter-terrorism command, said: ‘There are individuals that have conducted terrorist attacks or travelled for terrorist purposes as a result of Anjem Choudary’s radicalising impact upon them.’
During a press conference, he added: ‘ALM’s tentacles have spread across the world and have had a massive impact on public safety and security.’
NYPD deputy commissioner Rebecca Weiner said it was a ‘historic case’, describing Choudary as a ‘shameless, prolific radicaliser’.
Ms Weiner said: ‘It is usually the foot soldiers, the individuals, who are brought into the network who go on to commit the attacks who are brought to justice.
‘And it’s rarely the leader, which is what makes this a particularly important moment.’
Prosecutor Tom Little KC, opening the trial at Woolwich Crown Court on June 13, said Choudary had a ‘warped and twisted mindset’.
Omar Bakri Muhammad, who founded ALM, was in prison in Lebanon between 2014 and March 2023, and Choudary stepped in and ‘filled the void’, Mr Little said.
In 2016, Choudary was convicted and jailed for five-and-a-half years for supporting the so-called Islamic State.
The court heard that Choudary, whose licence conditions expired in July 2021 following his 2018 release from prison, said he viewed being called an extremist or fanatic as a ‘medallion’ during lectures.
Mr Murphy said: ‘What became clear after his licence conditions was that he saw the online space as a means of engaging globally with larger groups of people.
‘And what was clear to us was that increasingly there were a larger number of people that were willing to engage with Anjem Choudary online and he was having an influence over those individuals.’
Khaled Hussein, 29, from Canada, who prosecutors said was a ‘follower and dedicated supporter’ of Choudary, was found guilty of membership of ALM.
He was jailed for five years with an extra year on licence
Evidence showed how Hussein was effectively acting as a personal assistant to Choudary, helping to host online lectures and editing extremist online blogs and publications for him.
Defence barrister Hossein Zahir KC argued Hussein was a ‘wholly inactive’ member.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said: ‘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.’
