- Anjem Choudary received £140,557 to fund unsuccessful defence at Old Bailey
- Put behind bars in August after being found guilty of inciting support for ISIS
- Choudary is thought to have milked £500,000 in benefits from the British state
Anjem Choudary was put behind bars in August after being found guilty of inciting support for the terror group in a series of sick online lectures
Britain's most notorious hate preacher has received more than £140,000 in taxpayer-funded legal aid in his attempt to dodge jail for supporting ISIS.
Anjem Choudary was put behind bars in August after being found guilty of inciting support for the terror group in a series of sick online lectures.
He is believed to have inspired at least 110 Britons into committing terrorist acts and encouraged up to 850 fanatics to travel to Syria to fight for the Islamic State.
And today MailOnline can reveal he billed the taxpayer £140,557 for his unsuccessful court battle - and the figure is set to rise as his lawyers continue to file claims.
The data, revealed in a freedom of information request, includes £98,122 to pay for a solicitor, £23,569 for another court lawyer, and £18,866 in legal firm expenses.
After an Old Bailey trial shrouded in secrecy, Choudary was found guilty of 'inviting support for a proscribed organisation' under the Terrorism Act 2000.
His deputy, Mizanur Rahman, was convicted of the same offence, and the pair were each sentenced to five and a half years in prison.
Choudary has long served as the smug public face of radical Islam, organising protests against British troops and spouting his bile in TV interviews.
Choudary billed taxpayers £140,557 for his court battle - and the figure is set to rise as his lawyers continue to file claims. Pictured here with Lee Rigby killer Michael Adebolajo
The father-of-five milked the state throughout his campaign of hatred, claiming up to £500,000 in benefits, which he referred to as 'Jihadseeker's allowance'.
He urged supporters to follow his example, saying ‘the normal situation is for you to take money from the kuffar [non-Muslim]’.
Choudary's now-banned radical group, Al-Muhajiroun, has links to 15 terror plots, including the murder of Lee Rigby and the 7/7 attacks.
As leader, he repeatedly provoked the British public with a series of stunts in which his followers burned remembrance poppies and disrupted Armistice Day events.
Choudary also called for Buckingham Palace to be turned into a mosque and paraded a picture of his vision which was made by a man now fighting for ISIS.
For his trial anti-terror police investigated 20 years worth of material, with more than 333 electronic devices containing 12 terabytes of storage data analysed.
Choudary called for Buckingham Palace to be turned into a mosque and paraded a picture of his vision which was made by a man now fighting for ISIS
For his trial anti-terror police investigated 20 years worth of material, with more than 333 electronic devices containing 12 terabytes of storage data analysed
His conviction could be revealed only after the case had concluded due to court orders banning reporting.
Their trial heard Choudary swore an oath of allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in an East London pub after the so-called 'caliphate' was declared.
He and his deputy then pressed upon Muslims their supposed obligation to 'make hijrah', meaning to travel to ISIS-occupied lands, the court heard.
In Choudary's incendiary speeches, he told his followers ISIS had met the theological conditions for a legitimate caliphate.
At a time when the ISIS executioner Jihadi John was beheading hostages and posting the videos online, Choudary quoted a saying of the Prophet: 'Whoever comes to dispute with him, strike his neck.'
The drug taking, heavy drinking student who became the public face of British radical Islam
Born in south-east London to a market stall-holder, Choudary attended Southampton University, where he indulged in casual sex, porn and experimented with LSD and cannabis.
But he joined Al-Muhajiroun after falling under the spell of founder Omar Bakri Mohammed, the notorious preacher who praised the 9/11 attack and hailed the London 7 July bombers the 'Fantastic Four'.
His band of rabble-rousers rose to prominence in 2006 protesting against Danish cartoons of Mohammed.
This was followed by protests at parades for soldiers returning from Afghanistan, burning poppies and screaming insults during a two-minute silence on Armistice Day in November 2010.
From Choudary's secret headquarters hidden in the cellar of a sweet shop run by his family in London's East End, he spread his vile ideology to his tens of thousands of followers on Facebook, YouTube, What's App and Twitter.
But, using his legal training as a solicitor and forensic understanding of terrorism legislation, Choudary always managed to dodge prosecution, playing cat and mouse with police and MI5.
Tens of millions of pounds was spent investigating him.
On July 7 of that year, the preacher and his disciple Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 33, signed an oath of allegiance to IS which was posted on the internet.
Choudary was arrested two months later and convicted after a month-long trial at the Old Bailey.
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