Radical UK preacher faces jail for enlisting troops for IS
At least 100 British citizens were encouraged to take up terrorism by Anjem Choudary, convicted of supporting Islamic State
British cleric Anjem Choudary, who has long been accused of radicalizing young Muslims, was facing jail on Tuesday after being convicted of encouraging support for the Islamic State jihadist group.
Choudary and his supporters allegedly inspired at least 100 people from the UK to engage in terrorism, including joining groups such as the Islamic State, the Guardian reported.
The 49-year-old and his co-defendant Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 33, used a series of talks posted on YouTube to invite backing for the group, and pledged their allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
They were convicted of support for a proscribed terrorist organization following a trial in London last month and remain in custody.
Legal restrictions meant the verdict could not be made public until now.
Choudary is the former head in Britain of Islam4UK or al-Muhajiroun, a now banned group co-founded by Omar Bakri Muhammad that called for Islamic law in Britain.
For two decades, the former lawyer who is of Pakistani descent, managed to stay on the right side of the law.
Judge Timothy Holroyde accused the two men of showing “a grudging compliance” to the legal system, adding: “You have made your disregard for the court abundantly plain.”
Among those radicalized by Muhajiroun were the suicide bombers who killed 52 people on London’s public transport system in July 2005, and the men who murdered soldier Lee Rigby in the capital in 2013, police say.
“These men have stayed just within the law for many years,” Commander Dean Haydon, head of counter-terrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police.
“But there is no one within the counter-terrorism world that has any doubts of the influence that they have had, the hate they have spread and the people that they have encouraged to join terrorist organisations.”
He said the oath of allegiance made in July 2014 was a “turning point”, giving police the evidence they needed to prove that the men supported the Islamic State group.
Both men will be sentenced on September 6.
Choudary faces a maximum of 10 years behind bars, although judge Holroyde explained there was “very little in the way of precedent in the way of sentencing”.
The father-of-five previously hit the headlines for organising a pro-Osama bin Laden event in London in 2011, and was a member of a group that burned poppies, the symbol of remembrance for deaths in war, during an Armistice Day protest in the British capital in 2010.
The state prosecutor called it a “significant prosecution in our fight against terrorism” and said that the authorities would work with communities to ensure that the guilty men “are not replaced by others spreading hate.”
“Both men were fully aware that Daesh (IS) is a proscribed terrorist group, the brutal activities they are carrying out and that what they were doing was illegal,” said Sue Hemming, head of counter terrorism at the Crown Prosecution Service.
“Terrorism can have no place in our society and those that encourage others to join such organisations will be prosecuted.”
