Hate preacher Anjem Choudary who was jailed for running terror group has 28-year jail term reviewed by High Court judge
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary is having his 28-year jail sentence reviewed by a High Court judge, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.
It comes after he launched a tax-payer funded appeal to have his prison term reduced.
The fanatic was implicated last month when the brother of Manchester Arena bomber attacked three prison guards with boiling oil and makeshift knives in prison.
Hashem Abedi, 27 – who is jailed for life for his role in the Arena atrocity - attacked the officers in the kitchen of a separation unit inside maximum security Frankland prison in County Durham.
It is claimed that Choudary - who was also at the same unit - inspired Abedi to launch the horrific attack, with one of the officers airlifted to hospital with severe injuries.
Choudary, 58, has now been moved out of Frankland.
Last week, it emerged that a judge has begun reviewing Choudary's sentence, after the hate cleric launched an appeal in October, as was reported exclusively by the MoS.
The review is likely to take up to six weeks.
Choudary, the former leader of the banned group Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), was sentenced to 28 years after he was found guilty of leading a proscribed group in the US and Canada from his home in London.
After the joint investigation by Scotland Yard, the FBI and Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Choudary was found guilty of running the Islamic Thinkers Society, an offshoot of his banned ALM group.
Choudary's sentence was unusually long as he had come out of prison shortly before after being jailed for almost six years for inviting support to the Islamic State terror group.
Last night, the Criminal Appeal Office confirmed that Choudary's claim will be with 'the single judge for four to six weeks' while they decide whether the hate cleric has 'grounds of appeal.'
Freedom of Information requests have revealed that Choudary – who lived in council houses and claimed benefits all his life – cost the taxpayer £367,000 in legal fees for two previous trials.
Last night, Anthony Glees, a terrorism expert at Buckingham University, said: 'Choudary clearly remains a highly dangerous terrorist and radicaliser who is now trying to make a mockery of English justice.
'What the British public see here looks like an unending desire to pander to him, every time he raises a complaint. This has got to stop. Our courts need to say to tell him 'we're done'.
'Choudary has exploited Islamist separation units, most recently to mentor vile Abedi, they are clearly no longer fit for purpose.'
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