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		</div><p>Hate preacher Anjem Choudary is facing up to 10 years in jail when he is sentenced later for drumming up support for Islamic State (IS).</p>
<p>The British-born 49-year-old backed the terrorist group in a series of talks posted on YouTube, and recognised a caliphate &#8211; a symbolic Islamic state &#8211; had been created under an IS leader after it was announced on June 29 2014, the Old Bailey heard.</p>
<p>Despite being a leading figure in the banned group al-Muhajiroun (ALM), and with a series of former supporters going on to be convicted of terrorism, Choudary stayed on the right side of the law for two decades.</p>
<p>But the pledge of allegiance posted online provided a turning point for police who swooped to arrest Choudary and Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 33, from Whitechapel, east London.</p>
<p>Following an Old Bailey trial, the pair were found guilty of inviting support for IS between June 29 2014 and March 6 2015 and remanded in custody.</p>
<p>For legal reasons, details of the case could not be reported until three weeks after the guilty verdicts were delivered on July 28.</p>
<p>Choudary faces a maximum possible sentence of 10 years in prison, although Mr Justice Holroyde said there was little precedent for such cases.</p>
<p>The trial heard that the preacher, viewed by officers as a key force in radicalising young Muslims, had been the &#8220;mouthpiece&#8221; of Omar Bakri Mohammed &#8211; the founder of the banned extremist group ALM.</p>
<p>He courted publicity by voicing controversial views on Sharia law, while building up a following of thousands through social media, demonstrations and lectures around the world.</p>
<p>In one speech in March 2013, Choudary, from Ilford, north-east London, set out his ambitions for the Muslim faith to &#8220;dominate the whole world&#8221;.</p>
<p>He said: &#8220;Next time when your child is at school and the teacher says, &#8216;What do you want when you grow up? What is your ambition?&#8217;, they should say, &#8216;To dominate the whole world by Islam, including Britain &#8211; that is my ambition&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
<p>Supporters included Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, the murderers of Fusilier Lee Rigby, and suspected IS executioner Siddhartha Dhar.</p>
<p>Shortly after the announcement of the caliphate, Choudary held a meeting with his closest aides at a curry house in Mile End Road in east London to discuss it.</p>
<p>Before accepting it was legitimate, he also consulted his &#8220;spiritual guide&#8221;, Omar Bakri Mohammed, currently in jail in Lebanon, and Mohammed Fachry, the head of ALM in Indonesia.</p>
<p>On July 7 2014, the trio&#8217;s names appeared alongside Rahman&#8217;s on the oath posted on the internet, which stated the Muhajiroun had &#8220;affirmed&#8221; the legitimacy of the &#8220;proclaimed Islamic Caliphate State&#8221;.</p>
<p>The defendants followed up by posting on YouTube a series of lectures on the caliphate, which Choudary promoted to more than 32,000 Twitter followers.</p>
<p>The married father-of-five denied encouraging his followers to back the terror group and insisted the oath had been made without his knowledge. He said of the pledge: &#8220;It is completely unnecessary. For the rest of the Muslims it is obedience from the heart.&#8221;</p>
<p>Despite protesting his innocence, he continued to express extreme views, refusing to denounce the execution of journalist James Foley by so-called Jihadi John, aka Mohammed Emwazi, in Syria in 2014.</p>
<p>He told the jury: &#8220;If you took an objective view, there are circumstances where someone could be punished.&#8221;</p>
<p>Following the convictions, Commander Dean Haydon, head of Scotland Yard&#8217;s counter-terrorism command, said: &#8220;These men have stayed just within the law for many years, but there is no-one within the counter-terrorism world that has any doubts of the influence that they have had, the hate they have spread and the people that they have encouraged to join terrorist organisations.</p>
<p>&#8220;Over and over again we have seen people on trial for the most serious offences who have attended lectures or speeches given by these men.</p>
<p>&#8220;The oath of allegiance was a turning point for the police &#8211; at last we had the evidence that they had stepped over the line and we could prove they supported Isis.&#8221;</p>
<p>Choudary&#8217;s conviction was also welcomed by leading British Muslims, who condemned his &#8220;evil&#8221; and &#8220;hateful&#8221; views.<br />
After his conviction, Choudary&#8217;s Twitter account was removed by the social media giant.</p>
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