The extremist preacher Anjem Choudary has been discovered responsible of directing a terrorist organisation.
Choudary, one of the vital vital radicalisers within the UK, was caught in a global undercover investigation into his long-banned organisation.
Officers within the US and Canada posed as would-be terrorists to attend on-line lectures as British investigators bugged Choudary’s house.
Conviction for guiding the banned al-Muhajiroun (ALM) group means Choudary may very well be jailed for all times – but additionally reveals his enduring willpower to recruit followers.
Together with Choudary, one among his followers, Canadian Khaled Hussein, 29, was convicted of being a member of the banned group.
Decided and divisive ideologue
For greater than 1 / 4 of a century Anjem Choudary, 57, has promoted the Islamist ideology underpinning jihadist violence within the UK.
Within the late Nineteen Nineties, the previous solicitor was a scholar of Omar Bakri Muhammad, a Syrian-born firebrand cleric who shaped ALM.
Choudary grew to become the group’s second-in-command – however by 2010 the British authorities had banned the group and off-shoots due to its members’ hyperlinks to terrorism assaults.
When Bakri Muhammad was jailed in Lebanon in 2014, Choudary’s trial heard that he took on “the caretaker function” of working the organisation and had continued to unfold “a warped and twisted view of faith”.
That takeover occurred because the self-styled Islamic State group stormed over Syria and Iraq – and Choudary was jailed two years later for inviting his acolytes to assist the group.
He was launched on licence from HMP Belmarsh in 2018 – with the situations of his sentence, together with a ban on talking in public, ending in 2021.
Choudary was accused of holding the management of ALM from 2014 till presumably as late as July 2023 – however the costs from this second trial concern occasions after the phrases of his sentence resulted in 2021.
North American followers
Tom Little KC, prosecuting, informed Woolwich Crown Courtroom that after Choudary was free, he started delivering ideological lectures to supporters in New York who referred to as themselves the “Islamic Thinkers Society”.
Mr Little stated that ITS was the identical organisation as ALM and the conferences had been infiltrated by undercover officers.
One supporter was Canadian petrol station attendant Khaled Hussein, 29, who referred to as himself Abu Aisha al Kanadi.
He helped Choudary administer on-line conferences, and was already being watched by investigators within the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
By June 2021 the RCMP and the NYPD had been sharing intelligence. Inside months the Metropolitan Police had teamed up with them as Choudary and Hussein grew to become bolder.
The pair had been engaged on “Twitter storms” through which they posted prolifically on social media websites, campaigning for the discharge of Islamist prisoners.
Choudary was cautious to not personally advocate violence – and Hussein additionally tried to cowl his public tracks. However neither man knew that they had been making a gift of proof to the US and Canadian undercover officers who had been attending ITS talks
“The Islamic Thinkers’ Society are literally al-Muhajiroun North America,” Hussein informed one of many officers.
Visiting the person he idolised
Final July, Khaled Hussein travelled to the UK and was arrested at Heathrow airport.
Woolwich Crown Courtroom heard he informed detectives that he was learning English literature and wished to go to Shakespeare’s birthplace.
However they knew he was actually coming to fulfill Choudary, a person he idolised. Hussein had unwittingly informed one undercover officer that “most individuals don’t know I’m a part of al-Muhajiroun” – and the investigators additionally had Choudary’s aspect of communications.
Choudary had suggested Hussein on vacationer websites to go to, and informed him: “You might be additionally not too removed from Woolwich – the well-known Lee Rigby problem.”
That was a reference to the 2013 homicide of Lee Rigby, a soldier killed by two of ALM’s supporters, just some miles from the south London courtroom the place Choudary has now been convicted.
British investigators had additionally listened in to Choudary’s conversations together with his spouse of their east London house.
She was involved about his on-line lectures to America – however Choudary insisted: “I don’t say something dodgy.”
When she warned he was speaking to folks he may not personally know, he replied that he wished to encourage them.
Her issues had been legitimate. At occasions Choudary was lecturing simply 5 folks – and two of them had been undercover officers.
‘Chameleon like’ extremist group
Through the years, al-Muhajiroun operated below plenty of totally different names. Eleven of its offshoots had been proscribed by successive house secretaries. Retaining observe was like “chasing marbles down the steps” the courtroom was informed.
Amid all of the name-changes, one determine was fixed – and Choudary’s second conviction reveals the challenges for police in coping with a dedicated extremist.
“When he was launched from jail, and have become free from his licence situations in 2021, we did not cease investigating,” stated Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Command on the Metropolitan Police.
“Clearly [he] can proceed to have an affect approach past the shores. We now must be aware about who would possibly come behind Anjem Choudary.”
All such investigations, which additionally contain MI5, should steadiness the advantage of rapidly arresting and charging members of a community, with permitting extra time to snare leaders and uncover extra deeply hidden plans.
A senior British safety official stated: “Placing a cease to ALM radicalisation has been a key goal of the counter-terrorism group for some years – and this verdict builds on a spread of actions that made it tough for ALM to function.
“This investigation is a good instance of home and worldwide companions tackling terrorism – an strategy that’s very important when disrupting right now’s on-line and internationally related risk.”
Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Weiner of the New York Police Division stated the investigation had disrupted the “the radicaliser himself”, reasonably than the foot troopers who’re caught up within the assaults. Officers within the metropolis had spent 20 years monitoring ITS as a result of it had been an “extremist incubator”.
“This case represents in some ways, the borderless nature of the risk,” stated Dept Comm Weiner.
“It spans businesses, it spans nations, it spans an ocean. ALM has had a giant footprint within the UK… however in New York Metropolis, we have seen plenty of people who’ve been arrested, convicted on terrorism costs for involvement with ITS-ALM department in New York. And having that footprint signifies that collectively we work collectively and we spend important sources to deal with public security.”
Kevin Keegan defence
Within the witness field, Choudary downplayed his significance. He complained he was like a high footballer remembered for only one a part of their profession.
“In case you ask about Kevin Keegan, folks say he performs soccer for Liverpool,” Choudary informed the courtroom. “Folks have a look at me and suppose al-Muhajiroun.”
However the prosecution confirmed jurors that ALM had not disappeared in a puff of smoke – and Choudary had boasted in on-line talks in 2022 of his battle with the authorities.
“Even on this nation my expensive brothers it has change into very tough,” he informed followers. “After so many individuals went overseas, so many individuals change into Shaheed [martyred], many individuals have been arrested…
“Once I went to jail … they opened up a separation centre for me and my expensive brothers as a result of that they had change into so anxious about our Da’Wa [promotion of beliefs].
“They stated to me … you’re the primary radicaliser in Britain… that may be a badge of honour for me.”
In one other recording, Choudary carried out a technical soundcheck earlier than an interview with CNN through which he stated “1, 2, 3, 4, 5…..9/11, 7/7, 3/11.”
These final three had been references to the assaults in New York on the eleventh of September 2001, in London on the seventh of July 2005 and in Madrid on the eleventh of March 2004.
However finally, Choudary was below investigatory stress – and knew it.
The day after his mentor Omar Bakri Muhammad was launched from jail in Lebanon in March 2023, Choudary requested him for recommendation.
He moaned that the UK was a “full catastrophe”. Attracting recruits had change into “virtually unimaginable”.
“Each channel I make on Telegram, they ban it. Something I do, Sheikh, they ban it. Actually I am probably the most banned particular person.”
They reminisced about their “finest brothers” who had been killed in Syria or Iraq.
Choudary’s destiny alternatively is to return to a jail cell. He and Khalid Hussein might be sentenced on 30 July.
