Anjem Choudary, a “dangerous” Pakistani-origin radical Islamic preacher in the UK, was on Tuesday jailed for five-and-a-half years by a British court for encouraging support for the dreaded ISIS terror group.
Choudary, 49, was convicted at the Old Bailey court in london in July and a judge on Tuesday ruled that the “calculating and dangerous” man should be locked up behind bars.
The preacher, who had backed the ISIS in an oath of allegiance published online, was imprisoned alongside his 33-year-old aide Mohammed Rahman, also sentenced to five years and six months in prison.
Choudary’s barrister Mark Summers had argued that his client regretted breaking the law and urged Justice Holroyde not to sentence him on the basis of his 20 years of notoriety, nor on claims he had indoctrinated “a generation of people to commit direct acts of terrorism”.
However, the judge concluded a custodial sentence was a given even as his supporters shouted “Allahu Akbar” from the public gallery at Old Bailey court.