British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary jailed for encouraging support for Islamic State

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British Muslim cleric Anjem Choudary (right) and co-defendant Mizanur Rahman posing for custody photographs after their arrest in London. Photo: AFP

Published: 11:03pm, 6 Sep 2016Updated: 11:34pm, 6 Sep 2016

Anjem Choudary, Britain’s best-known Islamist preacher, was jailed on Tuesday for five years and six months for encouraging support for Islamic State, ending years of frustration for police who had struggled to pin charges on him.

Choudary, 49, and close associate Mizanur Rahman, 33, who received the same sentence, had been convicted by a jury in July of using the internet to urge followers to back the banned group, which controls large areas of Syria and Iraq.

We have watched Choudary developing a media career as spokesman for the extremists, saying the most distasteful of comments

Dean Haydon, head of counterterrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police

“These men have stayed just within the law for many years and there has been frustration for both law enforcement agencies and communities as they spread hate,” said Dean Haydon, head of counterterrorism at London’s Metropolitan Police.

“We have watched Choudary developing a media career as spokesman for the extremists, saying the most distasteful of comments, but without crossing the criminal threshold,” Haydon said in a statement.

Long denounced by the press in Britain as a hate preacher, Choudary is also well-known abroad, making regular television appearances in the wake of attacks by Islamist militants to blame Western foreign policy for targeting Muslims.

His trial heard that in postings on social media, Choudary and Rahman had pledged allegiance to the “caliphate” declared by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and said Muslims had a duty to obey or provide support to him.