A radical preacher was discovered responsible at a UK court docket on Tuesday of directing a banned terrorist organisation and inspiring help for it on-line.
A jury at Woolwich Crown Court docket in southeast London convicted Anjem Choudary of being the “caretaker” chief of Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), which was proscribed within the UK in 2010.
The group was based in 1996 by north London-based Syrian-born cleric Omar Bakri Muhammad with the objective of building an Islamic caliphate within the UK.
Its members have been implicated in numerous extremist assaults, together with the homicide of British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013, and assaults on London Bridge in 2017 and 2019.
Regardless of claims it had been disbanded, prosecutors stated Al-Muhajiroun continues to exist below completely different names, together with the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society.
US legislation enforcement officers infiltrated the group and attended on-line lectures it hosted with Choudary in 2022 and 2023, sparking police probes in Britain and in addition Canada.
“There are people which have carried out terrorist assaults or travelled for terrorist functions on account of Anjem Choudary’s radicalising impression upon them,” Dominic Murphy, of the Metropolitan Police, stated after his conviction.
“ALM’s tentacles have unfold the world over and have had a large impression on public security and safety,” added Murphy, who heads the pressure’s counter-terrorism command.
Rebecca Weiner, deputy commissioner of the New York Police Division, informed reporters Choudary’s conviction was “historic” and described him as a “shameless, prolific radicaliser”.
“It’s often the foot troopers, the people who’re introduced into the community who go on to commit the assaults who’re delivered to justice,” she stated.
“It is hardly ever the chief, which is what makes this a very necessary second.”
The prosecution informed the court docket that Choudary, 57, from Ilford in east London, took over as head of Al-Muhajiroun whereas Muhammad was in jail in Lebanon from 2014 to 2023.
Choudary, a former lawyer, was jailed for 5 and a half years in 2016 for encouraging help for the Daesh terrorist group, and was launched early from jail in 2018.
At his trial, he denied inviting help for ALM in the course of the on-line lectures and claimed the group had been disbanded.
However prosecutors stated the police investigations confirmed that ITS was “the identical” as ALM, whereas Murphy stated it was “clear” that Choudary had an affect on-line.
Choudary’s co-defendant Khaled Hussein, 29, from Edmonton, Canada, was additionally convicted of membership of ALM.
Hussein, stated to have been “a follower and devoted help” of Choudary, was arrested at London Heathrow Airport after arriving on a flight on July 17.
Each males can be sentenced on July 30.
