PROSECUTIONS ‘MUST BE EASIER’

LAST week the Government’s terror watchdog urged ministers to consider making it easier to prosecute preachers of hate, as he revealed police made 10 failed attempts to charge extremist cleric Anjem Choudary.

David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said one way to tighten the law was to make it illegal to encourage terrorism in private, instead of only when material is published, as at present.

British-born Choudary, 49, was jailed earlier this year for pledging allegiance to so-called IS.

Born in London, Choudary began preaching radical Islam in the 1990s.

He was sentenced to five years and six months at the Old Bailey on September 6, following a conviction in July.

The jury heard him ask fellow Muslims to support the banned organisation on YouTube. He was convicted by unanimous decision.

The trial heard that controversial Choudary peddled hate messages against the West for almost two decades without criminal prosecution. Alongside Omar Bakri Mohammed, Choudary founded radical Islamic group al-Muhajiroun which called for Sharia law to be implemented in the UK. The group were outlawed only to re-emerge under

different names.