Radical UK Islamist preacher Choudary convicted of terrorism offences

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LONDON (Reuters) -British radical Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, has been convicted of terrorism offences after a trial in London, the capital’s Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.

Prosecutors said the 57-year-old Choudary directed al-Muhajiroun, which was banned as a terrorist organisation more than a decade ago, and encouraged others to support the group. Choudary denied the charges.

He was found guilty of directing and being a member of a terrorist organisation, as well as addressing meetings to encourage support for a proscribed organisation after a six-week trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

Commander Dominic Murphy, Head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said Choudary was facing “a significant sentence”. He is due to be sentenced on July 30.

He stood trial alongside Canadian citizen Khaled Hussein, 29, who was arrested on the same day as Choudary in 2023 when he arrived on a flight at Heathrow Airport. Hussein was found guilty of membership of a proscribed organisation.

“I have no doubt that these convictions have left communities here in London, but also right across the UK and beyond, much safer,” Murphy said.

The joint investigation by the Met Police and Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 was assisted by the New York Police Department and Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who together gathered evidence that Choudary was running and directing al-Muhajiroun via online lectures with followers based in New York.

Police said Hussein helped him host the lectures with other extremists and edited extremist online blogs and publications for Choudary.

Once Britain’s most high-profile Islamist preacher, Choudary 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.

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.

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; writing by William James and Kylie MacLellan; editing by Sarah Young and Mark Heinrich)