UK court sentences Islamist preacher Choudary

British judge Timothy Holroyde on Monday announced a court decision to sentence Anjem Choudary, Britain's most well-known Islamist preacher, to five years and six months in prison for inviting support for the "Islamic State" militant group on social media.

Prosceutors claimed that Choudary used online lectures and messages to bolster support for the militant group, which rose to notoriety in 2014 when it seized large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria.

The preacher's name appeared on an oath declaring legitimacy for the "proclaimed Islamic Caliphate State," calling on Muslims to obey or provide support for its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, prosecutors said.

However, Choudary denied the terrorism charges, saying the oath had been made without his knowledge.

The Islamist preacher rose to notoriety in the UK and abroad for his controversial comments, including praising the militants who carried the 9/11 attacks and proposing Buckingham Palace should be converted into mosque.

He also refused to condemn the militants who carried out the 2005 bombings on the London transport system.

'Dangerous circles'

Nick Lowles, chief executive of anti-racist organization Hope not Hate, told DW in January that Choudary had several links to radical groups and militants who have carried out attacks.

"As a preacher, he has influenced some of the most well-known terrorists of the last decade and he has helped to send British and European Muslims to war zones around the wolrd to engage in jihad," Lowles said.

"As a result of becoming more internationally known, he has increasingly moved in more extreme and dangerous circles with evermore links to major international terrorist groups, such as Ansar al-Islam, the northern Iraq group affiliated to al-Qaeda," he added.

ls/rc (AP, AFP, Reuters)