Anjem Choudary — who previously pledged allegiance to ISIS, praised the 9/11 attackers, and called for the execution of the Pope — was convicted in British court Tuesday on terrorism charges following an investigation conducted by the NYPD, the U.K. Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Choudary, 57, was recorded by undercover investigators talking about his involvement with a terror group linked to the July 7, 2005, bombings in London that killed more than 50 people. He was also heard having a conversation with Omar Bakri Muhammad, the former leader of the group responsible for the attack, Al-Muhajiroun, also known as ALM.
The undercover work included an investigation by the NYPD which concluded that Choudary was becoming involved with a group called the “Islamic Thinkers Society” by Aug. 2021.
In May 2022, the RCMP was also in touch with police in the U.K. after a separate undercover investigation there determined that a Canadian named Khaled Hussein was in touch with Choudary and according The Met “helped [Choudary] host online lectures with other extremists and edited extremist online blogs and publications for Choudary.”
“Over the succeeding months, information, intelligence and evidence was gathered together by the investigation team, which built a picture that the ITS group in New York was a continuation and extension of the proscribed terrorist organisation ALM”, according to a press release.
Officials in the U.K. said in a statement that investigators trawled through hundreds of hours of audio and video content, and assessed over 16,000 documents which spanned a decade, to prove the links between ALM, ITS and Choudary.
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“Evidence gathered by the investigation team also showed how, over the past decade, the ALM group had encouraged and assisted various people in joining and fighting for [ISIS] and that Choudary was now seeking to influence and radicalise a new generation of extremists and encourage them to go and support terrorist causes around the world”, the statement says.
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Dominic Murphy, who heads the Met’s Counterterrorism Command, said in a statement, “the information and evidence we were able to gather, all while working closely with the Crown Prosecution Service, meant we were able to build a very strong case to prove Choudary was directing the ALM terrorist group and encouraging others to join them.”
Rebecca Weiner, the NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, said in a statement, “Anjem Choudary spent decades radicalizing individuals around the world and has now been brought to justice thanks to relentless collaboration across multiple agencies and countries.
“In today’s borderless world, public safety demands the level of teamwork that defined this historic investigation. The NYPD is deeply grateful to our partners at Counter Terrorism Policing, MI5, and RCMP for their tireless efforts that brought this case to its successful conclusion,” she said.
Choudary and Hussein face sentencing on July 30th.
