Why he’ll be free to spread his message of hate through jail
PRISON bosses will be unable to isolate Anjem Choudary thanks to a court battle won by his terrorist associates.
Before his arrest in 2014, the hate preacher vowed that if he was jailed, he would ‘radicalise everyone in prison’. He faces up to ten years in HMP Belmarsh, south-east London, after being convicted of inviting support for Islamic State.
But a legal ruling – in a case brought by two convicted terrorists linked to Choudary’s banned group Al-Muhajiroun – means the prison cannot keep him in solitary confinement for long periods.
Police murderer Kamel Bourgass, 42, and bomb plotter Tanvir Hussain, 35, launched a challenge costing taxpayers more than £500,000, complaining they were segregated ‘unlawfully’ in jail. Hussain, jailed for life in 2009, was accused of preaching through a cell window at Frankland prison, County Durham, ‘to convert non-Muslim prisoners to his own interpretation of Islamic ideals’.
Bourgass, serving life for the killing of Detective Constable Stephen Oake, in 2003, was segregated for seven months after exerting ‘significant influence’ over inmates at Whitemoor, Cambridgeshire.
Government lawyers argued the pair were segregated ‘for good order’ after they bullied other prisoners. But last July Supreme Court judges said holding them under such conditions for more than 72 hours without the Secretary of State’s authority breached prison rules.
Choudary is in a Belmarsh unit used to hold the most dangerous inmates, until sentencing next month. But he is unlikely to remain there long-term as his offence is less serious than other inmates’. A prison source said bosses ‘haven’t a clue what to do’, adding: ‘He can’t be put in solitary because of his human rights and a report on separate units is sitting on the shelf’.
Nick Lowles of anti-racism Hope Not Hate said it was ‘impossible’ to keep away from fellow inmates so ‘there will be a risk of indoctrinating and inspiring others’.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘A review was commissioned into the threat of Islamist extremism in prisons. We will report back shortly.’