Whitechapel extremist Mohammed Rahman and hate cleric Anjem Choudary convicted of supporting Isis

Tower Hamlets extremist Mohammed Rahman and hate preacher Anjem Choudary have been convicted of inviting support for Islamic State at the Old Bailey.

Rahman, 33, was living in Whitechapel when he was arrested along with notorious Islamist cleric Choudary, 49, in 2014.

The verdicts were delivered on 28 July but reporting restrictions have now been lifted.

Rahman and Choudary have links to banned organisation al-Muhajiroun (ALM), which police believe to be responsible for radicalising a number of people involved in terror attacks, including the 7/7 bombings and the murder of Lee Rigby.

During a meeting at a restaurant in 2014, Rahman and Choudary contacted convicted terrorist Mohammed Fachry and pledged allegiance to Isis and the group’s leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

Fachry later published the oath on an Indonesian website after it was signed off by Choudary, who was then arrested along with his acolyte Rahman on 25 September 2014.

The men face a maximum of 10 years behind bars.

Commander Dean Haydon, the head of Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism unit, said 20 years’ worth of material was examined in order to build a case against the pair.

Commenting on Rahman and Choudary, Haydon said: “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.

“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.

“The oath of allegiance was a turning point for the police – at last we had the evidence that they had stepped over the line and we could prove they supported ISIS.

“This has been a significant prosecution in our fight against terrorism and we will now be working with communities to ensure that they are not replaced by others spreading hate.”

Maajid Nawaz, who co-founded counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, is a former associate of Choudary and believes radicalisation in the UK has gone unchecked for 20 years.

In an article for The Times, Nawaz wrote: ‘Anjem’s extremist freefall mirrors what happened to so many within Britain’s Muslim communities throughout the nineties.

“His story highlights the dangers of theocratic Islamism morphing into violent jihadism, because that cancer was left unchecked to spread within our communities for so long.”

During the trial, Choudary refused to condemn the 2014 beheading of journalist James Foley by Mohammed Emwazi, known as “Jihadi John”, in Syria.

He has courted publicity in the past by appearing on television to call for Sharia Law to be imposed in the UK.

Sue Hemming, counter-terrorism chief at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: “These two men knowingly sought to legitimise a terrorist organisation and encouraged others to support it.

“They used the power of social media to attempt to influence those who are susceptible to these types of messages, which might include the young or vulnerable.

“Both men were fully aware that Daesh is a proscribed terrorist group, the brutal activities they are carrying out and that what they were doing was illegal.

“Terrorism can have no place in our society and those that encourage others to join such organisations will be prosecuted.”

The pair will be sentenced on 6 September at the Old Bailey.