Anjem Choudary found guilty of terror offences in UK and US

Extremist directed banned group Al Muhajiroun and promoted it through New York Islamist group

Anjem Choudary will be sentenced on July 30 after being found guilty in a trial at Woolwich Crown Court in Britain. AP

Veteran extremist Anjem Choudary has been found guilty of supporting terrorism on both sides of the Atlantic after a trial in the UK.

British prosecutors had told a London court that Choudary directed the banned group Al Muhajiroun and promoted it through the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society.

The US society, which prosecutors said was “the same” as Al Muhajiroun, was infiltrated by undercover investigators.

Agents overheard online lectures given by Choudary in 2022 and 2023 using the Element messenger platform, jurors were told.

Choudary was found guilty of directing a terrorist organisation, which he took over in a “caretaker role” while the group's founder Omar Bakri Muhammad was detained in Lebanon a decade ago.

Dominic Murphy, the commander of counter-terrorism at London's Metropolitan Police, said Al Muhajiroun's “tentacles have spread across the world”.

“There are individuals that have conducted terrorist attacks or travelled for terrorist purposes as a result of Anjem Choudary’s radicalising impact upon them,” Mr Murphy said.

Members of Al Muhajiroun have been implicated in several terrorist attacks, including the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013, the 2017 London Bridge attack, and the 2019 London Bridge stabbing.

The group was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in Britain in 2010, although the court heard that it has continued to exist under various names.

Mr Murphy said the verdict was a “significant milestone” due to the rare conviction for directing a terrorist organisation.

He also warned that his counter-terrorism team was seeing more young people in its case files. It was “deeply concerning” to see young boys being part of terrorism investigations, he said.

Khaled Hussein, 29, who prosecutors said was a “follower and dedicated supporter” of Choudary, was also found guilty of membership of Al Muhajiroun.

Choudary was arrested in East London on July 17 last year while Hussein, from Edmonton in Canada, was detained at Heathrow Airport, having arrived on a flight the same day.

In court, Choudary – who was convicted of supporting ISIS in 2016 – denied inviting support to Al Muhajiroun through his lectures because the group “didn’t exist”.

Filling the void

However, prosecutor Tom Little told Woolwich Crown Court that Choudary had “filled the void” after the group's founder went to prison in Lebanon.

Formed in 1996, the group operated overtly for a number of years and often caused public outcry, for example by praising the 9/11 attacks.

The group “disbanded” in 2005 to avoid being proscribed, but the jury heard secret recordings in which Choudary said it had operated under more than 50 aliases.

Successive home secretaries proscribed 14 different aliases used by the group.

The court heard that Choudary, whose licence conditions expired in July 2021 following his 2018 release from prison, said in lectures that he viewed being called an extremist or fanatic as a “medallion”.

“What became clear after his licence conditions was that he saw the online space as a means of engaging globally with larger groups of people,” Mr Murphy said.

“And what was clear to us was that increasingly there were a larger number of people that were willing to engage with Anjem Choudary online and he was having an influence over those individuals.”

Choudary was convicted of directing a terrorist organisation and addressing meetings to encourage support for a proscribed organisation.

He will be sentenced on July 30 at the same court.