The smirk that says: They’ve let me out
Hate preacher Choudary gets £2m-a-year security ... and free food from Pret
AFTer spending the last two decades laughing at the law while he spawned a generation of terrorists, Anjem Choudary walked free from prison still smirking yesterday.
Cheerily waving and nodding on the steps of his probation hostel, the smug hate preacher didn’t bother to hide his glee at being back before the cameras again.
He is set to receive free unsold food from the likes of Pret a manger and Tesco at the hostel – which backs on to a £15,000-a-year private school – as police monitor him in a security operation set to cost £2million annually.
For 20 years, Britain’s most notorious hate preacher toured TV studios espousing his poisonous views with impunity, organising street protests against British troops and flooding the internet with his recruitment videos for Islamic state.
Choudary’s sermons, which inspired beheadings and bomb plots worldwide infecting the minds of 120 Islamist terrorists, were only halted when he was locked up for five-and-a-half years in 2016 for swearing an oath of allegiance to Islamic state. Yesterday when he was released automatically at the halfway point of his sentence, Choudary went straight from prison to his podium.
Just hours after being spirited away from a maximum security prison under the cover of darkness to the hostel, Choudary emerged smiling to pose for a photocall at 1pm. But uncharacteristically, he remained silent due to stringent conditions of his release which state he cannot speak to the media.
In an extraordinary day, the Islamist cleric was swept out of Belmarsh Jail in south east London at 4am in a blacked-out people carrier followed by a convoy of unmarked cars carrying police and mI5 officers. He arrived at the hostel in north London around two hours later. In the afternoon, Choudary was allowed out unaccompanied to leave the hostel in a taxi with his wife rubana Akhtar.
earlier his wife, wearing a burka, made no comment to reporters as she went shopping.
The 43-year-old, who has previously admitted leading the female wing of Choudary’s banned terror group al-muhajiroun, faced an inquiry by scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command after she was caught on camera leading a secret group of British women supporting Islamic state in 2015.
But the probe was dropped shortly before her husband was freed. Their family home is just ten miles from the probation hostel where Choudary will have to live for the next six months with 40 other criminals. In the four-storey hostel, he will likely enjoy a TV in his room and his own fridge.
offenders are given rooms furnished with a double bed, wardrobe and chest of drawers. They are able to cook meals in shared kitchens and receive deliveries of food going out of date.
mobile phones are allowed but Choudary will not have access to a computer. Criminals are largely free to come and go, depending on bail conditions.
one said yesterday: ‘It’s a bit like uni accommodation. Like a Travelodge but not as nice.’ A 24-yearold resident who had served a three-and-half-year sentence, described life inside the building, saying: ‘You’re allowed to go out and work or sign on [for benefits]. most people are allowed out from 7am to 11pm but everyone has different conditions.’
Astonishingly, the hostel which houses crooks who have committed a variety of offences including violence and sexual assault, backs on to a £4,900-a-term school for young children.
Yesterday parents raised concerns about the presence of Choudary. one said: ‘I hope they keep a close eye on him.’
A neighbour said: ‘I think it is disgusting that he is here and freed so early given what he is responsible for. It is repugnant to think that this man who inspired terrorists is now living here.’
nBritain’s former head of counterterrorism said yesterday it was a ‘disgrace’ that tech giants had given Choudary a platform.
mark rowley blamed sites like Google and YouTube for giving him a higher profile than he deserved. He insisted: ‘At the end of the day he is a pathetic groomer of others. That is what he has done in the past. He is not some sort of evil genius.’
He said: ‘It’s pretty depressing if you Google “UK muslim spokesman” he comes up as the first hit.’