- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary is expected to have his release from jail reviewed after links emerged between him and London Bridge terrorist Usman Khan, it was reported on Monday (2).
Khan, who killed two people following a murderous rampage on Friday, had previously called Choudary a “personal friend.”
Choudary, 52, was pictured on Monday roaming the streets of east London wearing an ankle tag.
Pictured emerged yesterday of Choudary and Khan at a conference on sharia law in Stoke-on-Trent in 2009.
At the time, Khan, 28, used the alias Abu Saif when he spoke alongside Choudary.
In a 2012 recording unearthed by The Sun, Choudary had named Khan among bomb plotters from Stoke-on-Trent he described as “decent”.
He even said that the idea to launch a Mumbai-style atrocity was not illegal as they were simple “thought crimes.”
He added: “They are young – I imagine many young people talk about outrageous things but they did not carry anything out.
“They were just talking and discussing things. What is happening is not some thing that should be illegal, really.”
“They (Stoke members of London Stock Exchange bomb plot) were well known by the police for struggling (for extreme Islam).
“They used to attend demonstrations and protests but that does not mean that they were part of any organisation.”
Khan was shot dead after fatally stabbing two people — Saskia Jones and Jack Merritt — on Friday. He is the British-born son of Pakistani immigrants from the Kashmir region, and has three elder siblings – two brothers and a sister.
When he was just 17, his home was raided by anti-terror police after he distributed disturbing literature.
Shortly after the raid, Khan said: “I’ve been born and bred in England, in Stoke-on-Trent, in Cobridge, and all the community knows me and they will know… I ain’t no terrorist.”
