Anjem Choudary remains 'genuinely dangerous' ahead of imminent release, says prisons minister

Rory Stewart insists government will be watching Islamist preacher ‘very carefully’

Choudary is a British Islamist activist who has been convicted of inviting support for Isis (Getty)

Islamist preacher​ Anjem Choudary remains “genuinely dangerous”, the prisons minister has warned ahead of his imminent release from prison.

Choudary, from Ilford, east London, was found guilty of drumming up support for Isis and was jailed for five and a half years.

He is set to be released next month and Rory Stewart, the prisons minister, assured the public that the “completely pernicious” cleric would be watched “very, very carefully” by police and security services.

In an interview published in the Evening Standard, Mr Stewart said released extremists would be subjected to close monitoring by a variety of agencies.

Asked about Choudary’s release, he added: “He is somebody that I would put into the category I have just mentioned – somebody who was not given a sentence of enormous length but somebody who is a genuinely dangerous person.

“We will be watching him very, very carefully.”

The extremist preacher and former lawyer had frustrated the security services for decades by treading a careful line to keep his speeches just outside British terror legislation.

He was merely exercising his freedom of speech over his interpretation of the Quran and Islam, the former lawyer would argue.

That changed after Isis’s declaration of its “caliphate” in 2014.

As the group continued its brutal advance through Iraq and Syria, Choudary and his key supporters met at a curry restaurant in London.

After discussing the move with his mentor Omar Bakri Mohammed, who is currently in jail in Lebanon after being banned from the UK, Choudary and his followers allegedly pledged allegiance to Isis and its leader.

He did not publicly announce the pledge but sent a series of tweets on the day encouraging Muslims to move to an unspecified “caliphate”.

Over the coming months, Choudary and his co-defendant Mohammed Mizanur Rahman encouraged backing for the so-called Islamic State in a series of talks posted on YouTube.

He was convicted of inviting support for a banned group following a trial at the Old Bailey.

Agencies contributed to this report