Anjem Choudary guilty of directing banned group

Radical preacher Anjem Choudary has been found guilty of directing a group banned under UK terror laws and encouraging support for it online.

Choudary faces life in prison after he was convicted on Tuesday of taking a "caretaker role" in Islamist group al-Muhajiroun.

He was also found guilty of membership of a proscribed organisation after a trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

Prosecutors said Choudary directed the group for a significant period of time after 2014 and encouraged support for it by addressing online meetings.

Choudary told his trial that he was one of the original three members of al-Muhajiroun.

The prosecution said he was still acting as its leader as late as July 2023, making online speeches to a US-based offshoot called the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS).

That group was infiltrated by undercover law enforcement officers in the US, who were present at online lectures in 2022 and 2023.

The court heard that Choudary said he viewed being called an extremist as a "medallion" during lectures.

The conviction was the result of an investigation by British, American and Canadian authorities into Al-Muhajiroun.

Officers investigating Choudary trawled hundreds of hours of audio and video content and assessed over 16,000 documents to prove the links between al-Muhajiroun, ITS and Choudary, investigators said.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met's counter-terrorism command, said al-Muhajiroun's "tentacles have spread across the world and have had a massive impact on public safety and security".

He added that people have "conducted terrorist attacks or travelled for terrorist purposes" as a result of Choudary's "radicalising impact".

Seen as a radicalising network rather than a militant organisation, al-Muhajiroun was founded in the UK in 1996.

It was first banned by the government in 2006 under the name Al Ghurabaa. In 2010, al-Muhajiroun was included in the ban as an alternate name.

The group spent years recruiting others to its extremist interpretation of Islam and seeking the establishment of a caliphate ruled by Sharia. Police have said some 600 people have been linked to the organisation over the years.

People associated with al-Muhajiroun have been linked to attacks that police said were terror-related.

The three attackers that killed eight people at London Bridge in 2017 were led by a former member, and the murder of five people at Westminster Bridge earlier that year was by a man who had spent years associating with the group.

Another member killed two people at London's Fishmongers Hall in 2019.

The group also gained notoriety for its intentionally provocative demonstrations and publicity stunts, involving them praising the 9/11 attacks or heckling military funerals, which once featured regularly in the media.

After being banned in 2010, al-Muhajiroun regularly changed its name. The group operated under more than 50 aliases during its existence, Choudary said in a covert audio recording heard during his trial.

Choudary, 57, from Ilford, east London, was arrested on 17 July 2023.

Footage from his arrest, released by Scotland Yard after his conviction, showed police officers breaking down his front door at 5:30am to take him into custody.

Choudary was previously jailed in 2016 for encouraging support for the Islamic State group and released in 2018. He told the jury during his trial that after his release he had continued to do his best to propagate Islam.

One of his supporters, Khaled Hussein, 29, from Edmonton, Canada, was also found guilty of being a member of al-Muhajiroun. He was detained at Heathrow Airport on the same day as Choudary.

Commander Murphy said the charge used to prosecute Choudary was "very rare" in the UK and a "significant milestone".

He added that the Met Police's counter-terrorism command was "seeing an increasingly larger number of young people in our case files".

Bethan David, head of the Crown Prosecution Service counter terrorism division, said: "It is clear that both men were members of al-Muhajiroun and both men had a radical mindset.

"This organisation has been banned in the UK since 2010 because of the danger it poses. Such extremist views are a threat to our society, and I am pleased the jury found them guilty of their crimes."

Both men will be sentenced on 30 July.