Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been found guilty of directing terror group Al-Muhajiroun and encouraging support for it through online meetings.
Choudary, 57, is facing life in jail after he was found guilty of directing a terrorist organisation following an unprecedented joint investigation by MI5, Scotland Yard, the NYPD and Canadian police.
He was released early from a five-year sentence for inviting support for ISIS in October 2018 but his licence conditions prevented him from using the internet until July 2021.
Within days of the conditions expiring, he began issuing press releases on Whatsapp and Telegram from his home in Ilford, East London.
In a year he delivered more than 40 lectures, some to a small, selected circle but others with an audience of up to 150 from as far away as Brazil and Afghanistan.
Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been found guilty of directing a terrorist organisation
Choudary speaking in 2012 outside the US Embassy in London. The NYPD was involved in the investigation that led to his conviction
Choudary is a notorious Islamist preacher who was previously jailed for encouraging support for ISIS (pictured, centre, outside Westminster Cathedral in 2006)
He took over as leader of Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) after its previous leader Omar Bakri Muhammad (pictured) fled to Lebanon
It can be revealed that police in Britain, the US and Canada had been running separate investigations as they became concerned that Choudary was seeking to recruit a new generation of younger followers.
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner from the New York Police Department (NYPD), called Choudary a ‘shamelessly prolific radicaliser’ and added: ‘The names may have changed, years passed, but the threat remained.’
He began preaching online to a small group of associates in New York, called the Islamic Thinkers’ Society (ITS), in June 2022 which had been infiltrated by two US undercover law enforcement officers who recorded his speeches.
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.’
Khalid Hussein, 29, a member of the Islamic Thinkers Society living in Edmonton, Canada, began an online magazine called al-Aseer (the prisoners) and described to Canadian undercover officers how he was ‘working with Sheikh Anjem,’ adding: ‘We are the remnants of al-Muhajiroun.’
British prosecutors had to prove that Choudary had continued to run al-Muhajiroun (ALM), when the group’s spiritual leader, Omar Bakri Muhammad, fled to Lebanon after the 7/7 bombings in 2005.
Choudary had helped found the group in 1996 which re-appeared under numerous other names in an attempt to circumvent anti-terrorism laws, including Islam4UK and Muslims Against Crusades.
Choudary had been linked to numerous terrorists, including both Michael Adebolajo, the killer of Fusilier Lee Rigby, and Khuram Butt, the leader of the London Bridge attacks.
During his trial Choudary admitted that he had performed the wedding ceremony for Adebolajo and had been present when he converted to Islam.
Two American undercover officers, referred to as OP488 and OP377, flew to London to give evidence and described how they joined a video conference call using the Element messenger platform on June 12 2022.
A member of ITS using the name Abu Hamza, told Choudary: ‘We’re not banned or anything, we could go back to the old name al-Muhajiroun.’
Choudary said ‘fantastic’ but then added: ‘The name is not important anyway.’
Anjem Choudary pictured outside a bail hostel in London in 2018 after his release from prison. He was banned from using the internet upon release – but began disseminating material days after the conditions expired
Choudary had been linked to Michael Adebolajo, who murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby (pictured) in Woolwich in 2013
Choudary admitted during his trial that he conducted Adebolajo’s (pictured in a police handout after being jailed for life) wedding ceremony and was present for his Islam conversion
Choudary was also linked to Khuram Butt, the mastermind of the 2017 London Bridge terror attack (pictured: emergency services attending to victims)
Khuram Butt, the mastermind of the London Bridge terror attacks, was said to have met Choudary at his home
The international investigation came about as it emerged the NYPD, London’s Met Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were conducting separate investigations into Choudary
He boasted that no one had ever been prosecuted for being a member of al-Muhajiroun and spoke how ‘many people became shaheed alhamdulillah’ [martyrs, praise god].
In a lecture on July 17 2022, Choudary urged his followers: ‘Remember the good times my dear brothers, never forget who you are, remember the Lion King when he said, remember who you are.’
In one lecture on February 26 last year, Choudary told his audience: ‘Is terrorism part of the deen (faith)? Yes even more, horrifying is part of the deen, even to horrify the people.’
Choudary was also caught joking about trying to charge the media £9.11 to enter a press conference on the anniversary of 9/11 and naming a hurricane after Osama bin Laden.
MI5 had bugged Choudary’s home and the release of Bakri, after nine years in jail in Lebanon, produced a key piece of intelligence.
On April 30 last year, the covert listening devices picked up Choudary updating Bakri on the members who had become ‘martyrs’ and sending him the phone numbers for the ‘old timers.’
He described how he had continued his activity online and spoke about his role as Bakri’s ‘naqib’ [deputy] and how he had taken on the role of the ‘caretaker emir’ [leader] when Bakri had been jailed in May 2014.
Choudary was arrested when Khalid Hussein arrived from Canada to visit him on July 17 last year.
He stood in the dock in a white t-shirt with his arms folded as he was found guilty of directing a terrorist organisation and encouraging support for a proscribed organisation.
Hussein was found guilty of membership of a proscribed organisation.
Speaking in his defence, Choudary claimed al-Muhajiroun had been disbanded in 2004 but added: ‘It is the Kevin Keegan effect. If you ask people about Kevin Keegan, people say he played football for Liverpool. They look at me as al-Muhajiroun.’
However, Tom Little KC, prosecuting, told the jury at Woolwich Crown Court: ‘Leopards don’t change their spots and Anjem Choudary has not changed his mindset.’
Choudary’s message to those attending his lectures ‘would be clearly understood by them. It was not legitimate religious freedom of expression and it was not peaceful,’ the prosecutor added.
Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said: ‘This was a truly transnational terrorist investigation and that rarity has an awful lot to do with the significance of the case.’
Over the course of nearly 30 years, Anjem Choudary, lived off benefits as he preached violent jihad, labelled fellow Muslims as apostates for voting and advocated for the establishment of an Islamic state in Britain.
He promised followers ‘free food, clothing, and shelter’ under and Islamic state adding: ‘You don’t have electricity? Here is free electricity. Here is free water. What else do you want? Do you want a salary? Here, take some money. There is no society like that.’
Choudary regularly grabbed the headlines with stunts that included celebrations of 9/11, threats to picket soldiers’ funerals, and burning poppies on Remembrance Day.
He was also linked to numerous terrorists, dating back to a group arrested in Crawley, West Sussex in March 2004 who were planning to blow up the Ministry of Sound nightclub using half a ton of ammonium nitrate and had links to the 7/7 bombers.
The jury was not aware that Khuram Butt, the leader of the attackers who killed eight people at London Bridge and Borough Market in June 2017, was said to be ‘like a lion out of a cage’ after meeting Choudary at his home.
Usman Khan, who killed two Cambridge students at a prisoners’ conference at Fishmongers’ Hall in November 2019 was another follower who had Choudary’s number on his mobile phone when he was jailed in 2010.
After Choudary endorsed ISIS, large numbers of his associates travelled to Syria, including Siddhartha Dhar, a key lieutenant who appeared in an ISIS execution video in January 2016, shooting a prisoner in the back of the head.
ALM also opened up branches abroad including Shariah4Belgium, which was said to have played a role in radicalising the Paris attackers who killed 130 people in November 2015.
In the US, almost a dozen members or associates of the Islamic Thinkers’ Society were convicted of support for terrorism and a former member called Samir Khan moved to Yemen from where he ran a notorious online magazine for al-Qaeda called Inspire, designed to encourage lone actor attacks in the West.
In a bugged conversation with his wife, Rubina Akhtar on March 22 last year, Choudary said: ‘That impact is there – al-Muhajiroun has gone done in history and that’s why they say 40 per cent of all things associated with us. The impact was phenomenal, global.’
By August 18 2021, a month after Anjem Choudary’s licence conditions were dropped, he had 715 subscribers to his Telegram channel ‘A Call to Islam’.
It re-used the name of a group which Khalid Masood, the convert who killed PC Keith Palmer and four others in Westminster in 2017, had been involved.
The Telegram group was shut down on August 20 but Choudary just opened a series of alternatives, distributing new links on Whatsapp.
Muhammad Hamzah Heyder Khan, a 17-year-old from Birmingham, was arrested in November 2022 on suspicion of trying to join ISIS in Afghanistan, and investigators discovered that he had received advice over Whatsapp from Choudary on how to avoid checks on his phone when he left the country.
Heyder Khan had also asked Choudary if a Muslim running in the local elections was an apostate – for which the penalty is death.
A court sketch of Anjem Choudary appearing via video link to hear charges. He was ultimately found guilty of directing a terror group and encouraging support for the organisation
Anjem Choudary speaking outside Regent’s Park Mosque in July 2013, where he was said to have sought support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt
Choudary sent him the different Islamic verdicts on people who stand for elections and told him to ‘check this out and see where he falls’ adding: ‘You can decide.’
In a lecture on February 19 last year, Choudary mentioned that he had been approached by two 14-year-olds on the gaming and messaging app, Discord.
‘I feel like a grandfather definitely,’ Choudary said. ‘I’m not going to put them down in any way. They want the haqq [the truth] brother I’m going to give it to them. You just have to be a bit careful.’
Commander Dominic Murphy, the head of Scotland Yard’s Counter-Terrorism Command, said it was ‘deeply worrying’ that they were ‘seeing an increasingly large number of young people, particularly young teenage boys being part of terrorist investigations.’
‘Voices like Anjem Choudary and the reach of those online environments and secure apps, make it much, much easier to have an impact on younger people than we might have seen several years ago when we first started investigating Choudary,’ he added.
‘What became clear at the end of his licence conditions is that he sought to use the online space to engage globally with larger groups of people and increasingly there were larger numbers of people of people prepared to engage with him.
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner from the New York Police Department (NYPD), said: ‘Usually it is the footsoldiers who are brought to justice or go on to commit the attack and it’s rarely the leaders, which is what makes this a particularly important moment.’
Weiner said investigators had found it ‘somewhat surprising to see that this older generation still had sway and hold over younger kids.’
‘Some of these online lectures were quite small and intimate but many of them were large with hundreds of people and there you have the power of technology,’ she added.
Choudary had established a ‘transatlantic reach which was very powerful’ highlighting to police the ‘borderless nature of the threat’ and demanding a borderless response, Weiner said.
