UK hands life sentence to notorious Islamist preacher convicted of leading terror group

LONDON — British radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, is sentenced to life imprisonment for directing a terrorist organization.

Choudary, 57, was convicted last week of directing al-Muhajiroun, which was banned as a terrorist organization more than a decade ago, and encouraging others to support the proscribed group.

“Organizations such as yours normalize violence in support of an ideological cause,” Judge Mark Wall tells 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.”

Wall imposes 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.

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.