Anjem Choudary speaks after prayers at the Central London Mosque in Regent's Park on April 3, 2015. He and a man from Edmonton have been convicted for being members of a proscribed organization in the United Kingdom.Tim Ireland/The Associated Press
A Canadian gas-station attendant and a high-profile Islamist preacher in London have been convicted by a British court in an unprecedented terrorism case that police say involved the radicalization of hundreds of people around the world.
Anjem Choudary, a long-time preacher and activist in Britain, was found guilty by a jury on Tuesday of directing Al-Muhajiroun, or ALM, which has been linked to several terrorist attacks and is banned in the U.K. The jury also convicted Khaled Hussein, who worked at an Edmonton gas station, for being a member of ALM.
Mr. Choudary, 57, faces up to life in prison while Mr. Hussein, 29, could go to jail for 10 years.
The verdicts marked the culmination of a joint investigation by counterterrorism police in Britain, Canada and the United States. They were also among the first convictions under a section of Britain’s terrorism law that makes it a criminal offence to direct or be a member of a proscribed organization.
“Anjem Choudary has a long history of radicalizing individuals here in the U.K. and, now we know, overseas. So, this verdict is really significant for public safety,” said Dominic Murphy, who heads the London Metropolitan Police force’s counterterrorism command. “This was in effect one investigation but in multiple countries and in multiple legal jurisdictions, and I think that shows the strength of our relationships.”
Mr. Choudary has been a well-known figure in Britain for years and co-founded ALM in 1996 with his mentor Omar Bakri Mohammed. Mr. Bakri left Britain for Lebanon in 2005, and the British government barred him from returning because of his extremist views. He was later arrested and convicted in Lebanon on terrorism charges.
Mr. Choudary took over as ALM’s guiding force and he became infamous for praising the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks and calling for the creation of an Islamist caliphate in Britain. Police say that through ALM, Mr. Choudary radicalized extremists who carried out several attacks including the knifing of five people near London Bridge in 2019 and the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in 2013 as he was leaving a barracks in east London.
Britain banned ALM in 2010, but police say Mr. Choudary created other entities using more than 50 different names to continue its activities.
In 2014, Mr. Choudary pledged allegiance to ISIS. Two years later he was convicted of supporting the Islamic State and sentenced to five years in jail.
After his release in 2021, police say, Mr. Choudary shifted his focus outside Britain. and began collaborating with a group in New York called the Islamic Thinkers Society, or ITS, which was an ALM offshoot.
Rebecca Weiner, who heads the counterterrorism branch of the New York Police Department, told a press briefing that Mr. Choudary began giving regular online lectures and holding weekly chats, which re-energized ITS.
His speeches brought in dozens of members and attracted hundreds of viewers around the world. Some of the presentations involved practical advice about how to join ISIS in Syria.
Around the same time, the RCMP had zeroed in on Mr. Hussein. Counterterrorism officers had been tracking his social-media posts and his associates since 2020.
Lisa Moreland, an assistant commissioner with the RCMP, told the briefing that at first officers couldn’t understand how Mr. Hussein could be so active and well connected given his unassuming job. She said Mr. Hussein used multiple platforms and wrote numerous articles for radical magazines that praised ISIS and al-Qaeda.
The RCMP eventually drew a connection between Mr. Hussein and the ITS in New York. Meanwhile, the NYPD had been in touch with London police over Mr. Choudary’s links to ITS.
By 2022, all three police agencies began working together, often sharing information on a weekly basis.
With the help of wiretaps and undercover officers in Edmonton and New York, the police forces gathered evidence that showed Mr. Choudary viewed ITS as a branch of ALM and that he acknowledged leading ALM. They also established that he had resumed contact with Mr. Bakri after his release from a Lebanese prison in March, 2023. Mr. Bakri also participated in several online lectures with ITS.
As well, the police confirmed that Mr. Hussein was a key ALM member who followed Mr. Choudary’s direction and helped push the group’s ideology abroad.
“It was a very significant milestone,” Mr. Murphy said. “We hadn’t been able to convict anyone of ALM membership.”
In June, 2023, the RCMP received a tip that Mr. Hussein was heading to Turkey to visit his girlfriend. He planned to stop in London to meet Mr. Choudary. The RCMP told London police, and Mr. Hussein was arrested shortly after landing at Heathrow Airport on July 17. Mr. Choudary was arrested the same day.
All three forces said their investigations were continuing, including in Edmonton, where the RCMP is still looking into Mr. Hussein’s network.
Ms. Moreland was asked why Mr. Hussein wasn’t arrested and charged in Canada. She said each national investigation was at a different stage in 2023, but Mr. Hussein’s trip to London presented an opportunity to have him arrested in Britain and face charges under its terrorism legislation. Unlike in Britain, neither ALM nor ITS is banned in Canada.
“I think it’s important that we continue to look at naming entities,” she said when asked about whether the groups should be designated as terrorist organizations by the federal government. “But again, highlighting the importance that they do change names, we have to be nimble enough to address that.”
Both men will be sentenced on July 30.