UK: Radical preacher Anjem Choudary sentenced for life on terrorism charges

British-Pakistani preacher Anjem Choudary has been sentenced to life in prison for directing a “terrorist organisation,” Al Jazeera reported.

Choudary, 57, was convicted last week of directing al-Muhajiroun (ALM), which was banned as a ‘terrorist organisation’ more than a decade ago.

Judge Mark Wall announced a life sentence for the British-Pakistani preacher, with a minimum term of 28 years before he would be eligible for parole.

Wall told Choudary at London’s Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday that organisations such as ALM “normalise violence in support of an ideological cause” through online meetings.

“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,” he said.

According to prosecutor Tom Little, Choudary became “the caretaker emir” of ALM after its leader, Omar Bakri Mohammed, was jailed in Lebanon in 2014.

Choudary’s lawyer, Paul Hynes, argued that the group was “little more than a husk of an organisation” and that almost all attacks linked to it had already occurred.

The police in Britain, the United States and Canada gathered evidence after a joint investigation, that Choudary was running and directing ALM via online lectures with followers based in New York.

Prosecutors said the group has operated under many names, including the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society, which Choudary has spoken to.

New York Deputy Police Commissioner Rebecca Weiner, termed the case ‘historic’ and said the Islamic Thinkers Society was ALM’s US branch.

Choudary was convicted with one of his followers, Khaled Hussein. According to the prosecutors, he was also a dedicated supporter of the group.

Hussein, 29, of Edmonton, Canada, was convicted of membership in a proscribed organisation and sentenced to five years in prison. The two were arrested a year ago after Hussein landed at Heathrow Airport.

Earlier in 2016, Choudary was imprisoned for encouraging support for ISIL (ISIS). He was released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.

The group ALM, which emerged in the late 1990s, has been linked to several attacks both at home and abroad, according to Al Jazeera.