Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary loses enchantment bid after being jailed for all times for working banned terror group
Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, who was jailed for life for running a banned terror group. has lost a legal challenge against his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal.
Choudary, 59, who radicalized dozens of Islamic extremists including the killers of soldier Lee Rigby, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years in 2024.
The firebrand, formerly of Ilford, east London, was convicted in July of that year of taking a ‘caretaker role’ in directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) while its founder was in jail.
He also encouraged support for it through online lectures to the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), which prosecutors said was another name for ALM.
Sentencing Choudary, Mr Justice Wall said he was ‘front and centre in running a terrorist organisation’.
At a hearing on Wednesday, lawyers for Choudary told the Court of Appeal he should be allowed to challenge his conviction and the length of his sentence.
Lawyers for Khaled Hussein, who was Choudary’s co-defendant, also sought the green light to challenge his sentence of five years in prison with an extra year on licence for being a member of ALM.
In a ruling, three senior judges dismissed the appeal bids.
Anjem Choudary, 59, who radicalized dozens of Islamic extremists including the killers of soldier Lee Rigby, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years in 2024
Choudary took charge of ALM from 2005 after its then leader Omar Bakri Muhammed (pictured) fled the UK for his native Lebanon
Lord Justice Edis, sitting with Mr Justice Goose and Judge Alan Conrad KC, said there was a ‘strong case’ against Choudary, ‘abundantly supported’ by evidence, and that his bid to challenge his conviction was ‘unarguable’.
He also said Choudary’s sentence was not ‘arguably manifestly excessive or wrong in principle’, stating the offending was of ‘exceptional gravity, persistence and duration’.
Dismissing Hussein’s appeal bid, the judge said the 31-year-old was ‘not an inert and inactive member’ of ALM, and instead was ‘doing what he could to further its aims’.
Choudary had been a leading member of ALM since it was founded in late 1990s.
Although the group officially disbanded in 2004, it survived secretly and adopted names such as the Saved Sect. He took charge of ALM from 2005 after its then leader Omar Bakri Muhammed fled the UK for his native Lebanon.
ALM was proscribed as a terror organisation in the UK in 2010, but prosecutors told Choudary and Hussein’s trial at Woolwich Crown Court it continued to exist under various names.
It has been linked to at least 16 terror plots and senior members travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.
This included Siddhartha Dhar, a key lieutenant who appeared in an ISIS execution video in January 2016 shooting a prisoner in the back of the head.
Khalid Hussein, 31, a member of the Islamic Thinkers Society living in Edmonton, Canada, has had his appeal dismissed alongside that of Choudary at the Court of Appeal
Firebrand Choudary, formerly of Ilford, east London, was convicted in July 2024 of taking a ‘caretaker role’ in directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) while its founder was in jail
Choudary was an associate of Woolwich killer Michael Adebolajo, London Bridge terrorist Khuram Butt and Fishmongers’ Hall attacker Usman Khan.
He celebrated the 9/11 attacks as a ‘towering day in history’ and Omar Bakri Muhammad, the group’s former leader, labelled the 7/7 attackers the ‘fantastic four’.
Tom Little KC, for the Crown, told jurors Choudary ‘filled the void’ to lead ALM while founder Muhammad served a prison sentence in Lebanon between 2014 and 2023.
Mr Little said Choudary was convicted and jailed for five-and-a-half years in 2016 for supporting the so-called Islamic State, and had a ‘warped and twisted mindset’.
After his release from licence conditions, he began trying to rebuild ALM, delivering more than 40 lectures in one year to audiences of up to 150 across the world and communicating directly with recruits as young at 14 on WhatsApp and Telegram.
Choudary and Hussein were arrested after undercover law enforcement officers in the US infiltrated the ITS, attending lectures in 2022 and 2023.
At sentencing, Mr Justice Wall said Choudary’s views were ‘entrenched and abhorrent to most right-thinking people’.
In written submissions for Wednesday’s hearing, Paul Hynes KC, for Choudary, said the judge was wrong to admit evidence of third parties committing acts of terrorism while he directed ALM.
The barrister said the convictions of others connected to ALM were ‘overwhelmingly and irremediably prejudicial’ to Choudary as they ‘exposed (him) to conviction based on guilt by association’.
The Crown Prosecution Service, again represented by Mr Little, opposed the appeal bids.
In their ruling, Lord Justice Edis said it was ‘impossible’ to say Mr Justice Wall’s decision to admit the evidence ‘was not one that was properly open to him to reach’.
It means Choudary sentence stands and he will likely die behind bars, as he is not eligible to be released until he is at least 85.
