British-Pakistani Preacher Anjem Choudary Sentenced to Life for Leading Terrorist Organisation

Anjem Choudary, a British-Pakistani preacher, has been sentenced to life in prison for his role in directing a terrorist organisation, al-Muhajiroun (ALM), which has been banned for over a decade. The sentencing was reported by Al Jazeera.

Choudary, 57, was found guilty last week of leading ALM, and Judge Mark Wall handed down the life sentence with a minimum term of 28 years before Choudary becomes eligible for parole. During the sentencing at London’s Woolwich Crown Court on Tuesday, Judge Wall highlighted the dangers posed by such organisations.

“Organisations like ALM normalize violence in support of an ideological cause through online meetings. 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,” Judge Wall stated.

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Prosecutor Tom Little explained that Choudary assumed the role of “caretaker emir” of ALM following the imprisonment of its previous leader, Omar Bakri Mohammed, in Lebanon in 2014. Despite Choudary’s lawyer, Paul Hynes, arguing that ALM was “little more than a husk of an organisation” and that most attacks linked to it had already taken place, the court remained resolute in its judgment.

Evidence gathered from a joint investigation by police forces in Britain, the United States, and Canada indicated that Choudary was running and directing ALM through online lectures to followers in New York. Prosecutors also noted that ALM operated under various names, including the New York-based Islamic Thinkers Society, which Choudary had addressed.

Rebecca Weiner, New York’s Deputy Police Commissioner, described the case as ‘historic,’ noting that the Islamic Thinkers Society functioned as ALM’s US branch.

Choudary was convicted alongside Khaled Hussein, a 29-year-old from Edmonton, Canada, who was also found guilty of membership in a proscribed organisation and sentenced to five years in prison. Hussein was apprehended a year ago upon arriving at Heathrow Airport.

Previously, Choudary had been imprisoned in 2016 for encouraging support for ISIL (ISIS) and was released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.

Emerging in the late 1990s, ALM has been linked to multiple attacks both domestically and internationally, according to Al Jazeera.

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