Letting Choudary out of jail ‘to cost us £2m a year’
‘He’s not been deradicalised’
ANJEM Choudary will be locked down with a huge security operation when he is released from prison this week.
The notorious hate preacher faces up to 25 strict conditions drawn up to control almost every aspect of his life.
And he will be at the centre of a monitoring and security operation aimed at smothering his influence. One estimate put the total bill to the taxpayer of monitoring him at more than £2million a year.
By contrast it costs an estimated £50,000 a year to keep a prisoner in the Category A Frankland prison near Durham where he has been held.
Ministers are desperate to prevent 51-year-old Choudary returning to his role as a firebrand inspiration, both online and in person, for disaffected young Muslims.
But not only are the authorities deeply concerned that his release could galvanise militant Islamists who regard him as a leader, they also fear he, his family or one of his inner circle could be singled out and attacked by a far-Right hate mob.
Choudary, who once led the banned group Al-Muhajiroun, was sentenced to five and half years in prison in 2016 after being caught swearing an oath of allegiance to Islamic State. But because he spent a short period on remand before he was convicted he is eligible for release on licence from Wednesday, after serving less than half his term.
This will be despite government ministers lining up to warn that he remains ‘genuinely dangerous’ to the British public.
The huge operation to monitor his movements will be led by the security services and Scotland Yard.
Ahead of his release, Choudary will be moved from HMP Frankland to Belmarsh high security prison in south-east London.
He is expected to be taken to a halfway house in the capital, where he will spend several weeks before being allowed to return to his family home. It is possible that Choudary, his wife and his five children may be moved from their council home to a new location.
The security operation will include surveillance teams, monitoring devices and demands that Choudary adhere to up to 25 rules controlling his movements and activities.
These were drawn up to prevent him contacting other extremists, broadcasting to unknown audi- ences online or reaching vulnerable men and women. Under his release conditions, Choudary will be banned from preaching at or attending certain mosques.
He will be allowed to associate with people only after they have been vetted and approved by the authorities. He will be banned from using the internet without close supervision and may face other restrictions on his use of the web.
He will only be allowed one mobile phone and officials will be able to ask him to hand this over for its use to be examined at any time.
Choudary also faces being targeted by United Nations sanctions to freeze his assets, prevent him travelling and even enforce ‘arms embargo provisions’.
It is believed such draconian measures have only once been used before in the UK, on hook-handed Egyptian cleric Abu Hamza.
Any breach of the conditions of his release on licence will result in his immediate return to prison, where he will be forced to complete the rest of his sentence.
Choudary has a list of followers that reads like a Who’s Who of modern terrorism. Among them are London Bridge terror attack ringleader Khuram Butt, and Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, who murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London.
One senior police source said the resources put into managing Choudary’s release are ‘eye-watering’.
The source added: ‘Discussions on how to manage him back in the community began even before he was sentenced.
‘No-one is under any illusions about the risk he poses. But our job is to manage that threat, not stop him attempting to embarrass anyone.’
Last week Security Minister Ben Wallace compared Choudary’s skill as a radicaliser to how paedophiles groom their victims.
Addressing an audience of security experts, he said: ‘Like all highrisk offenders there will be a multiagency response put in place.
‘We are alive to the threat people like him pose and we will make sure we put in place whatever steps we need to mitigate it.’
Harry Fletcher, who campaigns for victims’ rights, said: ‘All prisoners are subject to licence conditions but because he was convicted of terrorism offences they will be particularly rigorous in this case.
‘But police and probation also have a duty of care to him and will have to ensure he is not provoked or attacked.’
Haras Rafiq, of Quilliam, a counter-extremism organisation, questioned whether the operation will be effective.
‘He doesn’t believe that the law has any power or jurisdiction over him,’ he said. ‘He’s not been deradicalised, I don’t think he ever will be. To his followers, now that he’s been in prison he’s seen as something of a martyr for the cause.’