Back on the streets soon, the hate preacher and his (more dangerous) pupil
Britain’s security services on alert as prisons prepare to release Anjem Choudary and Mizanur Rahman
A CONVICTED terrorist to be released from prison along with Anjem Choudary poses a greater threat than the notorious hate preacher who radicalised him, according to security sources.
Mizanur Rahman, 35, was jailed with Choudary after they were found guilty of drumming up support for Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). They have both served half their five-year sentences and will be released next month.
Choudary, 51, groomed Rahman and recruited him to al-muhajiroun, a now proscribed terrorist organisation, and it is feared the younger man could now be the more dangerous of the two.
The Ministry of Justice has imposed more than 20 strict licensing conditions on both men in time for their release: they will not be allowed to meet each other, members of al-muhajiroun or members of its various incarnations.
Rahman, from north London, was groomed at 17 by Choudary and became a web designer, creating secret internet forums for al-muhajiroun disciples.
One source said: “We will have to wait and see what happens when they are released. It’s fair to say that Rahman is more computer literate than Choudary, younger and more energetic. That is a big worry.”
It is understood a major concern is Rahman’s close links to Siddhartha Dhar, a childhood friend, who fled to Syria, where he replaced Mohammed Emwazi, better known as Jihadi John, as Isil’s public executioner after his fellow Briton was killed in a drone strike.
Dhar, dubbed Jihadi Sid, is the most high profile British member of Isil still thought to be alive and there are fears that Rahman will try to make contact with his friend. Rahman is responsible for radicalising Dhar, who has been designated a global terrorist by the US State Department.
Unlike Choudary, a trained lawyer who had, until his conviction in 2016, managed to stay on the right side of the law, Rahman has previous convictions – for inciting racial hatred and for soliciting the murder of non-muslims at a protest at the Danish embassy over cartoons that allegedly depicted the prophet Mohammed.
At the embassy protest, Rahman called for the beheading and annihilation of those who insulted Islam as well as calling for attacks on Denmark, Spain and France.
Calling for the murder of British and American soldiers in Iraq, he said: “We want to see them coming home in body bags. We want to see their blood running in the streets of Baghdad. We want to see the Mujahideen shoot down their planes the way we shoot down birds. We want to see their tanks burn in the way we burn their flags.”
Rahman was found later found to have posted inflammatory speeches on Linkedin, a social media site for business contacts, and his words have in- spired others to prepare acts of terrorism.
Earlier this month, Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 21, radicalised by Rahman on Youtube, was sentenced to 30 years in prison after planning a “multifaceted attack in which he envisioned he would die as a martyr”. His primary target was Theresa May, the Prime Minister. Another terrorist with links to Rahman is Rizlaine Boular, 22, who, along with her 18-year-old sister, was jailed for life last month for plotting a terrorist attack. Boular had downloaded extremist material as well as content from Choudary and Rahman.
A security source said of Choudary and Rahman: “There are no templates for licence conditions. Each is tailored. These are complex individuals and there are lots of complex details to go through. It is not unusual to have noncontact orders for people convicted of these sorts of offences. There can also be behaviour orders so they stop spreading their poisonous ideology.”
Chris Phillips, former head of the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, said: “It is very scary. What we know is that people around Rahman have gone and done terrible things. They are very dangerous.
“Unless we change the laws we cannot do anything. We need to make control orders much stronger. The police are in a near impossible situation.”
‘What we know is that people around Rahman have gone and done terrible things. They are very dangerous’