High-profile British radical preacher Anjem Choudary appeared in a London court on Monday, charged with leading a terrorist organization.
Choudary, 56, was charged Sunday with three counts under the Terrorism Act: directing a terrorist organization, membership in a banned organization and addressing meetings to encourage support for the organization between June 2022 and this month.
Prosecutors say the charges relate to the group al-Muhajiroun, which was outlawed by the British government in 2010. It has since operated “under many names and guises,” including the Islamic Thinkers Society, prosecutors say.
Choudary is alleged to have provided lectures to the Islamic Thinkers Society.
He was arrested at his home in London in July 17. He was charged alongside with Canadian national Khaled Hussein, 28, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport the same day after arriving on a flight.
Hussein, from Edmonton, Alberta, is charged with membership in a proscribed organization. Prosecutors say he worked with Choudary to provide “a platform” for the group's views.
Neither man entered a plea during separate hearings at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Both were ordered detained until their next hearing at the Central Criminal Court on Aug. 4.
Nick Price, from the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division, said that "criminal proceedings against Mr. Choudary and Mr. Hussein are now active and they each have the right to a fair trial.”
