Anjem Choudary, the British-Pakistani leader of the al-Muhajiroun terrorist organization, has been handed a ‘life’ sentence by England‘s High Court. He will not be eligible for parole for 28 years when he will be 85—if he is still alive.
Choudary has been a founder or spokesman for numerous Islamist organizations that have been determined to be terrorist groups or fronts, including al-Muhajiroun, Al Ghurabaa, and Islam4UK. He was a close associate of and inspiration to the British-Nigerian jihadists who near-decapitated British soldier Lee Rigby in Greater London in 2013.
Choudary avoided the British courts until 2016 when he was tried for swearing allegiance to the Islamic State. He was released from his supposed five-and-a-half-year sentence on license in 2018, however, and was soon actively—if more surreptitiously—preaching again.
He was arrested and convicted again in 2023 for directing the United Kingdom’s branch of the al-Muhajiroun terrorist network. Judge Sir Mark Wall noted the Choudary-run al-Muhajiroun had been “thinly disguised” as the “Islamic Thinkers Society” following its 2010 ban.
“Organizations such as yours normalize violence in pursuit of an ideological cause. They drive wedges between people who would otherwise live together in peaceful co-existence. Your behavior was of the highest culpability.” said Mr Justice Wall.
“I am sure you will continue to preach your message of hate and division in the future, you are not someone who can be diverted from that course,” he continued.
“The dangers you pose are in your organizational skills and skills as an orator; I cannot at present foresee a time when you will cease to be dangerous.”
Court reports suggest Choudary, 57, was “shocked” at the length of the sentence and rocked back on his feet as it was handed down.
