Ilford hate preacher Anjem Choudary loses bid to challenge conviction for drumming up IS support
Radical cleric Anjem Choudary, of Hampton Road, Ilford, has lost his appeal, to challenge his conviction for inviting support for IS. Picture: PA - Credit: PA Wire/PA Images
Notorious Ilford hate preacher Anjem Choudary has lost a bid to challenge his conviction for drumming up support for Islamic State (IS).
Court of Appeal judges in London threw out his application for permission to appeal.
Choudary, formerly of Hampton Road, Ilford, was jailed for five-and-a-half years in September last year following a trial at the Old Bailey.
He was convicted of encouraging people to support IS in a series of talks posted on YouTube.
Lady Justice Sharp and two other judges ruled that he did not have an “arguable” ground of appeal, and that his conviction was not “arguably unsafe”.
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His renewed application – which had been previously rejected by a single judge – was dismissed by the three judges on October 12, and they announced their reasons for doing so in a written judgment today.
Father-of-five Choudary, 50, and Mohammed Rahman, 34, from Whitechapel, east London, were found guilty of inviting support for IS. Rahman was also sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison.
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The three appeal judges also rejected an application by Rahman for permission to appeal against his conviction, ruling in his case that he too did not have an arguable ground, and his conviction was not “arguably unsafe”.
When sentencing last year, Mr Justice Holroyde said the men had shown “contempt for the values of the democracy in which we live” and failed to denounce the appalling violence of IS.
Since his conviction Choudary has been linked to the ringleader of the London Bridge terror attack Khuram Butt, the Westminster Bridge attacker Khalid Masood and also the Three Musketeers plot.
Choudary and Butt, who taught the Qu’ran at an private Ilford Islamic school and ran classes at a gym, were friends, according to the Independent.
Butt was also reportedly a member of Choudary’s banned Al-Muhajiroun group, and with his two accomplices, killed eight people and injured dozens more in their June rampage.
