A judge on Tuesday sentenced Anjem Choudary, one of the UK’s most recognised radical Islamist preachers, to life jail after he was found guilty of directing a banned “terrorist organisation”.
At Woolwich Crown Court in London, judge Mark Wall sentenced Choudary to a minimum of 28 years, noting that the 57-year-old former attorney was “front and center in running a terrorist organization.”
The New York Police Department (NYPD), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and the London Metropolitan Police conducted a cooperative investigation that resulted in the prosecution.
He will serve more than 26 years behind bars in total due to the time he has already spent in custody, meaning he will not be released before the age of 85, Wall said.
Explaining why he had ordered the lengthy term, the judge added that Choudary had “encouraged young men into radical activity”.
Long in the authorities’ sights, Choudary has already spent time in jail for supporting the jihadist Islamic State group.
A jury last week found him to be the “caretaker” leader of Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), an organization that the UK banned in 2010. This has led to his return to prison.
Omar Bakri Muhammad, a cleric from Syria who now lives in London, formed the group in 1996 with the intention of establishing an Islamic caliphate in the United Kingdom.
Its members have been linked to several attacks, such as the 2013 murder of British soldier Lee Rigby and the 2017 and 2019 attacks on London Bridge.
Despite claims it had been disbanded, prosecutors said Al-Muhajiroun still exists 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 the conviction.
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 media figure 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.
He was jailed for five and a half years in 2016 for encouraging support for the Islamic State group, and was released early from prison in 2018.
Choudary’s co-defendant Khaled Hussein, 29, from Edmonton, Canada, was also convicted of membership of ALM and was sentenced to five years in prison on Tuesday.
