The 59-year-old was convicted in July 2024 of taking a “caretaker role” in directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) while its founder was in jail
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Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has lost bids to challenge his conviction and sentence for running a banned terrorist organisation at the Court of Appeal.
The 59-year-old was convicted in July 2024 of taking a “caretaker role” in directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) while its founder was in jail, and encouraging support for it through online lectures to the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), which prosecutors said was another name for ALM.
He was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum term of 28 years, with Mr Justice Wall saying Choudary 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.
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”.
ALM was proscribed as a terror organisation in the UK in 2010, but prosecutors told Choudary and Hussein’s trial at Woolwich Crown Court that it continued to exist under various names.
Tom Little KC, for the Crown, told jurors Choudary “filled the void” to lead ALM while its founder, Omar Bakri 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”.
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”.