Control so tight he may be less free than in jail

Smug Choudary out ofjail & now ‘more iconic for vile extremists’

SURVEILLANCE The MI5 HQ in London ANJEM Choudary may be free but it is a freedom defined by some of the strictest control orders the UK has ever issued on any offender.

If he breaks just one condition of his release licence, he will be back behind bars to complete his term there.

Papers seen by the Mirror show just how tight a line he will have to walk...

■ SURVEILLANCE Wearing a special tag, which he cannot remove, he will be monitored remotely 24 hours a day and put under surveillance by MI5.

It is likely counter terror officers will visit him to let him know they are watching. A source said: “The restrictions may be more prohibitive in some ways than when he was in prison because he will not have his freedom.

“These are some of the most oppressive control orders ever to be placed on an offender and he will certainly know he is being monitored very carefully.”

■ ACCOMMODATION For the first six months, he will have to live in a hostel at a secret address in London. It is likely CCTV will have been placed inside the site, both covertly and overtly so Choudary will know he is being watched always.

He must sleep only in his one-room home, which he must be in from 9pm to 8am, and between 3pm and 4pm.

He is likely to be moved every few weeks because of the threat from right-wing extremist groups.

■ MONEY His bank accounts will effectively be frozen, unless he needs to access cash for very specific and pre-authorised reasons – and the bureaucracy for this will be restrictive. ■ COMMUNICATIONS He will only be allowed one mobile, of which the SIM card and identity number will have been handed to his supervising officer.

But it will not be a smart phone as web access is strictly controlled.

The phone – likely to be bugged – can be taken from him at a moment’s notice and checked by a technician.

He is banned from owning a computer unless it is approved by his supervising officer and is not allowed messaging services or email access.

■ WORSHIP When he prays, it will be at a specific mosque that has already been approved. But even there he is banned from associating with, contacting or chatting to anyone who has been charged or convicted under terrorism acts. He is also banned from talking to children in case he tries to push extremist ideology on them.

And he cannot have contact with any friends he may have made in jail or any convicted al-Mahajiroun pals.

■ TRAVEL He will be banned from international travel and may even be refused permission to leave London. FREED Islamist hate preacher Anjem Choudary waves with a smirk at his bail hostel yesterday.

The defiant Islamic State supporter was let out of Category A HMP Belmarsh in the morning, having qualified for automatic release after serving half his five-and-a-half year sentence.

Choudary was flanked by four security guards as he appeared outside his North London digs for just one minute.

The 51-year-old cannot speak to the press under bail conditions believed to be some of the strictest ever issued to an offender, simply giving a nod and grin before strolling back inside.

Radicaliser Choudary, jailed in 2016 for promoting IS and pledging allegiance to the terror group, is sharing the hostel with 40 other people. Some now reportedly want to move.

Choudary later walked out of the hostel, at 5pm, and was whisked away in a waiting Vauxhall Zafira.

He sat in the back with a woman wearing a burka.

A man in the front seat hid his face with his coat as the car drove away.

Security and intelligence expert Professor Anthony Glees, of Buckingham University, said Choudary’s followers will be victorious.

Prof Glees said: “His sentence was considered by many to be light. While he may not literally have blood on his hands, in the sense that he encouraged others to go and fight for Islamic State, in a very real moral sense his hands are drenched in the blood of IS’s victims.

“I agree with prison minister Rory Stewart that Choudary remains ‘a dangerous and pernicious man’.

“Can we have confidence that the police and MI5 will stop him contacting future recruits? He will be seen even more now as an iconic figure, someone who has taken on the British state and come out the other side.

“He swore allegiance to IS and in my view he threw away his British citizenship when did. He supports [IS] and should go there now. He is a highly dangerous individual and we should pray that he leaves these shores.”

Locals said they did not want the married father-of-five living near them. Rikki Jean said: “He’s the last thing we need. What’s the point in arresting dangerous people if he’s going to be out and in our community in two years?” PROF ANTHONY GLEES SECURITY EXPERT

In a moral sense his hands are drenched in the blood of IS’s victims