RADICAL Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, known for his followers' involvement in numerous global plots, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday (30) for leading a terrorist organisation and encouraging support for it online.
The 57-year-old was convicted last week of directing al-Muhajiroun, a group banned over a decade ago as a terrorist organisation, and inciting others to support it.
"Organisations such as yours normalise violence in support of an ideological cause," Judge Mark Wall told Choudary at London's Woolwich Crown court.
"Their existence gives individuals who are members of them the courage to commit acts which otherwise they might not do. They drive wedges between people who otherwise could and would live together in peaceful coexistence," he added.
The group was founded in 1996 by north London-based Syrian-born cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad with the goal of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the UK.
Its members have been implicated in a number of attacks, including the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013, and attacks on London Bridge in 2017 and 2019.
Despite claims it had been disbanded, prosecutors said al-Muhajiroun continues to exist under different names, including the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society.
US law enforcement officers infiltrated the group and attended online lectures it hosted with Choudary in 2022 and 2023, sparking police probes in Britain and Canada.
"There are individuals that have conducted terrorist attacks or travelled for terrorist purposes as a result of Anjem Choudary's radicalising impact upon them," Dominic Murphy, of London's Metropolitan Police, said after his conviction.
Wall imposed a life sentence on Choudary with a minimum term of 28 years before he can be eligible for parole, less just over the year that he has spent in custody since his arrest. The verdict came following a joint investigation by the UK, the United States and Canada.
Once Britain's most high-profile Islamist preacher, Choudary drew attention for praising the men responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and saying he wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.
He was previously imprisoned in Britain in 2016 for encouraging support for Islamic State, before being released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Prosecutor Tom Little said on Tuesday that Choudary became "the caretaker emir" of al-Muhajiroun after fellow Islamist preacher Omar Bakri Mohammed was jailed in Lebanon in 2014.
Choudary's lawyer Paul Hynes argued that al-Muhajiroun was "little more than a husk of an organisation" and that almost all terrorist acts linked to the group had already taken place.
But Wall said al-Muhajiroun was "a radical organisation intent on spreading sharia law to as much of the world as possible, using violent means where necessary".
Choudary stood trial alongside Canadian citizen Khaled Hussein, 29, who was arrested on the same day as Choudary in 2023 when he arrived on a flight at Heathrow Airport.
Hussein was found guilty of membership of a proscribed organisation and sentenced to five years in prison.
Rebecca Weiner, deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department, told reporters Choudary's conviction was "historic" and described him as a "shameless, prolific radicaliser".
"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," she said. "It's rarely the leader, which is what makes this a particularly important moment."
Choudary, the son of a market trader, became a familiar figure in the media after staging demonstrations in front of UK mosques, embassies and police stations in the early 2000s.
His ultimate goal, he said, was to fly the flag of Islam above 10 Downing Street, the prime minister's residence
(With inputs from Reuters and AFP)
