UK hate preacher gets five years prison for supporting ISIS

UK on Tuesday sentenced Hate preacher Anjem Choudary for over 'five-and-a-half years’ prison term for supporting the Islamic State (ISIS) militants.

The 49-year-old British-born leader of banned al-Muhajiroun posted a series of YouTube videos in which he recognised the “caliphate” created by ISIS in Syria and Iraq.

The court found Choudary and his co-defendant Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, who received the same sentence, guilty of inviting support for the terrorist group ISIS between June 29, 2014 and March 6, 2015.

As Choudary was sentenced, his supporters in the public gallery shouted “Allahu Akbar.”  During the sentencing, the judge described Choudary as “calculating.”

“You are both mature men and intelligent men who knew throughout exactly what you were doing. You are both fluent and persuasive speakers,” the judge said.

Despite leading al-Muhajiroun, Choudary had kept on the right side of the law for 20 years. However, his enthusiastic videos in support of ISIS gave police cause to arrest him under section 12 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

Details of the case could not be reported until last month due to legal restrictions.