I missed this last week while I was away. From MSN
Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary, who was jailed for life for running a banned terror grou,. has lost a legal challenge against his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal.
Choudary, 59, who radicalized dozens of Islamic extremists including the killers of soldier Lee Rigby, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 28 years in 2024
The firebrand, formerly of Ilford, east London, was convicted in July of that year of
taking a ‘caretaker role’ in directing Al-Muhajiroun (ALM) while its founder was in jail.
He also encouraged support for it through online lectures to the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), which prosecutors said was another name for ALM.
Sentencing Choudary, Mr Justice Wall said he 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, 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’.
ALM was proscribed as a terror organisation in the UK in 2010, but prosecutors told Choudary and Hussein’s trial at Woolwich Crown Court it continued to exist under various names. It has been linked to at least 16 terror plots and senior members travelled to Syria to join Islamic State.
Choudary was an associate of Woolwich killer Michael Adebolajo, London Bridge terrorist Khuram Butt and Fishmongers’ Hall attacker Usman Khan. He celebrated the 9/11 attacks as a ‘towering day in history’
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’.
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’.
It means Choudary sentence stands and he will likely die behind bars, as he is not eligible to be released until he is at least 85.
