Anjem Choudary, who preached hate over two decades with seeming impunity from legal punishment, has been jailed for five years and six months for his activities to support Islamic State.
Choudary was sentenced at the Old Bailey in London after his conviction in July of urging Muslims to support Isis in a series of talks posted on YouTube. He was convicted alongside his acolyte Mohammed Rahman, 33, who was also sentenced to five years and six months in prison. Choudary’s supporters in the public gallery shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) as the judge finished sentencing.
The offence carried a maximum of ten years in jail and Choudary will serve two years behind bars, which he believes will be wholly or mostly spent in solitary confinement, to stop him turning vulnerable inmates towards terrorism.
Choudary, 49, avoided serious criminal charges for years, but his conviction for terrorism was agreed unanimously by a jury.
Sentencing the pair, the judge said they would remain a danger, even in prison, telling them: “I regard each of you as dangerous. You show no remorse at all for anything you have said or done and I have no doubt you will continue to communicate your message whenever you can.”
The judge added: “The jury were sure that you knowingly crossed the line between the legitimate expression of your own views and the criminal act of inviting support for an organisation which was at the time engaged in appalling acts of terrorism.”
The judge said both men justified Isis’s most appalling acts and expressed contempt for democracy. They had “encouraged your audience ... to believe that no one who failed to support the caliphate established by Isis could be a true Muslim,” the judge said.
Choudary was a key figure for a succession of Islamic militant groups. He was dismissed as a clown by some, but helped motivate at least 100 young people to turn to terrorism in Britain and Europe.
The judge imposed an order called a notification period, to last 15 years, meaning conditions could be placed on the pair when they are released.
The “hate preacher” and Rahman told their supporters to obey Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Isis leader, who is also known as a caliph, and travel to Syria to support “the caliphate”, the trial had heard.
He was a key figure in al-Muhajiroun, which was banned under terrorism legislation and relaunched itself as al-Ghurabaa, only to be banned again. Successor groups were also banned, including Islam4UK and Muslims Against Crusades.
Choudary’s barrister, Mark Summers QC, said his client regretted breaking the law. Summers urged the judge, Mr Justice Holroyde, not to sentence Choudary on the basis of his 20 years of notoriety, or over claims that he had indoctrinated “a generation of people to commit direct acts of terrorism”. He said: “Mr Choudary has done his best to stay within the law, acting on the boundaries of it maybe, but determined to stay within the law.”
Summers painted a picture of a man touched by remorse, facing solitary confinement, and said Choudary would not offend in the future. “He has had time to reflect, and on reflection would have done things differently had he known the boundaries of the law. He is determined not to cross those boundaries in the future.”
Summers said the extremist’s invitations of support for Isis were intellectual calls, not incitements to violence, and there was no evidence anyone acted on them.
The conviction came after an investigation by Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command. Detectives assessed 20 years worth of material held on 333 electronic devices containing 12.1TB of data.
Commander Dean Haydon, head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, said: “We have watched Choudary developing a media career as spokesman for the extremists, saying the most distasteful of comments, but without crossing the criminal threshold. Their recent speeches and the oath of allegiance were a turning point for the police: at last we had the evidence that they had stepped over the line and we could prove they were actively encouraging support of Isis.
“This has been a significant prosecution in our fight against terrorism and we will now be working with communities to ensure that they are not replaced by others spreading hate.”
Between August and September 2014, Choudary and Rahman posted speeches on YouTube encouraging support for Isis. An audio clip, lasting one hour and six minutes and uploaded to Choudary’s YouTube channel on 9 September 2014, was played to jurors. Titled How Muslims Assess the Legitimacy of the Caliphate, the speech was played over the image of a map of northern Africa, the Middle East, north-west Asia and southern Europe.
Choudary starts by setting out his views about the requirements of a legitimate Islamic caliphate, then explains why he sees Islamic State as meeting the criteria. “The lesson from this narration is that obedience to the caliph is an obligation, if they rule by the sharia. And to obey them obviously means they must be established,” Choudary says in the clip.
Choudary trained as a lawyer and described himself as a student of Omar Bakri Mohammed, an extremist who fled Britain in 2005.