Radical preacher Anjem Choudary convicted of supporting Islamic State

Radical UK cleric Anjem Choudary is facing up to ten years in prison after he was convicted of urging people to support the Islamic State militant group.

The Old Bailey heard that Choudary, 49, had sworn an oath of allegiance to IS and urged his followers to support the terrorist group n a series of talks posted on YouTube.

Choudary and his confidant Mohammed Mizanur Rahman told their supporters to obey IS “caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and to travel to Syria to support IS or “the caliphate”.

“These men have stayed just within the law for many years, but there is no one within the counter-terrorism world that has any doubts of the influence that they have had, the hate they have spread and the people that they have encouraged to join terrorist organisations,” said Commander Dean Haydon, head of the Met police’s counter-terrorism command.

“Over and over again we have seen people on trial for the most serious offences who have attended lectures or speeches given by these men. The oath of allegiance was a turning point for the police – at last we had the evidence that they had stepped over the line and we could prove they supported Isis.”

Haydon said that police examined 20 years’ worth of material in the investigation, assessing 333 electronic devices containing 12.1 terabytes of storage data.

The investigations revealed that Choudary was encouraged to support Isis by Siddartha Dhar, a notorious British fighter who was arrested alongside the cleric before fleeing to Syria to fight for IS while on police bail.

Choudary was once the spokesperson for al-Muhajiroun, an organisation linked to several terrorism suspects whose leader Omar Bakri Muhammad fled the UK after the 2005 London suicide bombings. Over the years, Choudary has become one of the most influential radical Islamists in Europe and several of his followers have either left the UK to fight in Syria or attempted to do so. His supporters include Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who hacked soldier Lee Rigby to death in Woolwich in 2013.

The court heard that Choudary had in March 2013 made it clear that he wanted Islam to “dominate the whole world”.

“Next time when your child is at school and the teacher says ‘What do you want to be when you grow up? What is your ambition?’, they should say ‘To dominate the whole world by Islam, including Britain – that is my ambition’,” he said.

The court also heard that his confidant Rahman – who was previously convicted of soliciting to murder – had told his Facebook followers that it was their “duty” to migrate to IS territory.

“Let’s be clear, the Muslims in the Khilifah need help,” he wrote. “The one who is capable to go over and help the Muslims, must go and help.”

Choudary and Rahman will be sentenced at the Old Bailey on September 6.