KNIFE ATTACKER WAS ‘CLOSE FRIEND’ OF HATE PREACHER CHOUDARY
LONDON Bridge terrorist Usman Khan was a friend and student of hate preacher Anjem Choudary, it has been claimed.
The 28-year-old was part of a nine-strong Al Qaeda-inspired terror gang, many of who were mentored by the notorious cleric.
In 2012, the group were jailed over a plot to blow up the London Stock Exchange and kill Boris Johnson, but Usman was released last year on an electronic tag.
At the time of their sentence, Choudary, 52, said the members of the group were “decent young chaps”, who “did not mean to kill anyone”.
Choudary, from east London, ran the al-muhajiroun and
Islam4uk groups. Both were banned in January 2010.
The preacher, who was released from prison in October after serving five-and-a-half years for encouraging Muslims to join IS, said he taught six members of the gang – including Khan – at venues across the country.
In 2012, he said: “Certainly the ones in London and in Stoke were students of mine.they studied the Sharia with me and I knew them for quite a while.
“Dedicated to Islam, they were students of Sharia and as far as I know they were not planning or plotting anything.
“They were very inquisitive so I am not surprised if they downloaded material but that does not mean they wanted to kill anyone or carry out any operations.
“At one point they used to study with me and attend some of our lectures.they used to attend some circles and occasionally they would attend some demonstrations and protests.”
Privately, however, Khan thought Choudary was ineffective.
Before his 2010 arrest, MI5 operatives bugged his Stoke-ontrent home where he was recorded saying: “Brothers like Anjem, they ain’t going nowhere.”
During a late-night meeting in the December of that year, Khan was also heard discussing plans for a firearms training camp in Kashmir and describing members of the public as “dogs”.
He was also recorded talking about “how to construct a pipe bomb” from a recipe in an Al Qaeda magazine.
Yesterday, there were calls for Choudary to be recalled to jail amid fears his “disciples” could cause more carnage on Britain’s streets. Dr Paul Stott, a research fellow at the Centre on Radicalisation & Terrorism at the Henry Jackson Society, said: “All these years later and Anjem Choudary’s one-time acolytes are still butchering the public.
“The Government was warned last year that releasing so many almuhajiroun members at the same time was reckless. Now one such releasee has struck.
“Usman Khan was an integral member of Choudary’s inner-circle and we know him to have been highly regarded by Choudary.
“In total, 25 per cent of all Islamist terrorists have had some link to Choudary – he has become the central figure in the history of British Jihadism.
“The security services must consider immediately recalling Choudary to prison until the threat posed by him and his affiliates has stabilised.”
In 2008, Khan’s address was one of five properties in Stoke raided by counter-terrorism police, but no one was charged.
Speaking afterwards in a BBC documentary, Khan complained about being under suspicion.
He said: “I’ve been born and bred in England. All the community knows me and that I ain’t no terrorist.”
Yesterday, it emerged that Khan tricked officials with a letter he sent to his lawyer soon after he was jailed.
In it, he asked to be enrolled in a programme of deradicalisation to “prove to the authorities” that he was no longer “immature”.
Khan was released on licence last year after serving half of his 16-year sentence.
A former neighbour, who did not want to be named, said: “It’s disgusting he was freed to kill. They should have locked him away for ever.”
Yesterday, police in forensic suits were seen at Khan’s parents’ home in Etruria, Stoke-on-trent.
Officers were also spotted at another relative’s property in nearby Cobridge and a block of flats in Stafford, where Khan is thought to have been living.
‘In total, 25 per cent of all Islamist terrorists have had some link to Anjem Choudary’