Freed Choudary disciple living within mile of the radical cleric

Release of follower who tried to radicalise teenager adds to growing fears that terrorist group will reform

A DISCIPLE of Anjem Choudary who was jailed for plotting to behead soldiers has been freed from prison and is now living within a mile of the hate preacher.

Kazi Islam is the latest follower of Choudary to be released after serving half of an eight-year sentence.

Islam, 24, had tried to groom a vulnerable teenager with learning difficulties to carry out the murder of soldiers and to buy ingredients for a pipe bomb.

The Daily Telegraph discovered that Islam has now returned to the family home, about a mile from where Choudary is living in east London.

Islam lives next door to his uncle Kazi Rahman, a convicted terrorist and another associate of al-muhajiroun, the banned terrorist group that was headed up by Choudary.

Described by a judge as “callous” and “manipulative”, Islam targeted 19-yearold student Harry Thomas to lure him into carrying out a terror attack.

He was inspired by the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby, who was beheaded in Woolwich in 2013.

Islam encouraged Thomas, who suffered from Asperger’s syndrome, to start calling himself Haroon, and set about radicalising him by showing him pictures of dead children from war zones in the Middle East.

Last year Thomas was jailed after being convicted of an attempted murder in east London. A family source said his life had “spiralled out of control” after he was targeted by Islam. “He never really got over what happened to him,” the source said. “He was extremely vulnerable and Kazi Islam deliberately targeted him. It has ruined his life.”

There are growing fears that former members of al-muhajiroun are starting to regroup. Its activities were severely disrupted following the detention of Choudary, Britain’s most notorious Islamist hate cleric, in 2016.

Choudary remains on strict licence conditions that prevent him communicating with other known extremists as well as requiring him to wear an electronic tag and obey a strict curfew.

It is likely that similar conditions apply to Islam. Other senior figures in almuhajiroun – or its various offshoots – who have been released in recent months include Abu Izzadeen, formerly known as Trevor Brooks, who acted as the group’s enforcer, and Mizanur Rahman, an internet expert who created private, online chat rooms for Choudary’s followers.

A well-placed source said: “The

‘He was extremely vulnerable and Kazi Islam deliberately targeted him. It has ruined his life’

group remains a threat to national security but the disruptions have been very effective. Choudary is now out and back at home. He is somebody who preferred to stay in the comfort of his home in London and encourage others to go and fight. He is a coward.”

In October last year, Choudary was granted an early release from prison to a bail hostel in north London after serving two and a half years for “inviting” support for terrorist groups.

Days before his release, he was placed on a United Nations Security Council terror sanctions list for “pledging allegiance to Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant”.

Last week, Choudary was pictured for the first time by this newspaper since being released back to his family home in east London under licence.

He smiled for the camera as he went about his daily shopping trip to buy sweets and top up an electricity prepayment card.