Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary found guilty of directing terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun
23 July 2024, 12:16 | Updated: 23 July 2024, 12:57
Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been found guilty of directing the terrorist organisation Al-Muhajiroun and encouraging support for it through online meetings.
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The 57-year-old, of Ilford in east London, was convicted of taking a "caretaker role" in directing the terrorist group at Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said Choudary directed the terrorist organisation for a significant period of time from 2014 onwards.
Choudary also encouraged support after giving lectures to the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), which was “the same” as ALM, according to prosecutors.
He is now facing life in jail following an unprecedented joint investigation by MI5, Scotland Yard, the NYPD and Canadian police.
Undercover law enforcement officers in the US infiltrated ITS by attending online lectures in 2022 and 2023.
ALM was proscribed as a terror organisation in the UK in 2010, but it is understood to have continued to exist under various names.
During the trial, Choudary denied inviting support to ALM through lectures to ITS because the group “didn’t exist”.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the 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."
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 radicalizer".
She 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."
She said that ITS was "ALM's US base branch", adding that "names may have changed, years may have passed, but the threat really remained constant."
Choudary, who was convicted of supporting the so-called Islamic State in 2016, denied inviting support to ALM through lectures to ITS because the group "didn't exist".
He said during the trial that ALM was disbanded in 2004 because founder Muhammad had a shift in ideology.
The court heard Choudary said he viewed being called an extremist or fanatic as a "medallion" during lectures.
In one, he boasted that 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."
He was released early from his five-year sentence in 2018 following the charge two years earlier, but his licence conditions prevented him from using the internet until July 2021.
In the space of a year following the expiration of these conditions, he delivered more than 40 lectures, some to a small, selected circle but others with an audience of up to 150.
Commander 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."
