British radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 28 years on Tuesday for directing a terrorist organization.
The same judge sentenced Khaled Hussein, 29, of Edmonton, to five years in prison for membership in a proscribed organization, with an additional year of probation.
Choudary, 57, was convicted last week of directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), also known as the Islamic Thinkers Society. The group was banned as a terrorist organization more than a decade ago.
Prosecutors said Hussein was a dedicated supporter of ALM.
Both men were arrested a year ago after Hussein landed at Heathrow Airport.
“Organizations such as yours normalize violence in support of an ideological cause,” Judge Mark Wall told Choudary at London’s Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday.
“Their existence gives individuals who are members of them the courage to commit acts which otherwise they might not do. They drive wedges between people who otherwise could and would live together in peaceful coexistence.”
Wall imposed a life sentence on Choudary with a minimum term of 28 years before he can be eligible for parole, less just over the year that he has spent in custody since his arrest.
Previous conviction
During the trial, the U.K. court heard that Hussein had been a member of Al-Muhajiroun for at least two years and had been in close contact with Choudary, “in effect working for him.”
Prosecutor Tom Little described Choudary as having a “warped and twisted mindset,” and said in court that he had stepped in to lead ALM after Omar Bakri Muhammad, the group’s founder, was imprisoned in Lebanon between 2014 and March 2023.
Once Britain’s most high-profile Islamist preacher, Choudary drew attention for praising the men responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and saying he wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.
He was previously imprisoned in Britain in 2016 for encouraging support for Islamic State, before being released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.
