LONDON: Anjem Choudary, a notorious British hate preacher who has been jailed for terrorism-related charges, has denied radicalizing the man who murdered an MP last week.
Ali Harbi Ali, 25, fatally stabbed Conservative Party MP Sir David Amess on Friday, and his former friends later told The Sun that he became radicalized when he started watching Choudary’s online videos.
Speaking to The Sun, Ali’s friends claimed the videos turned him from a “popular pupil into an extremist.”
But Choudary, who has been featured in Arab News’ Preachers of Hate series, called those accusations “spurious, non-verifiable chats.”
It was “questionable,” he said, that he radicalized Ali since he was unable to produce content online from 2015 to 2021, after being found guilty of supporting Daesh.
Choudary told the Daily Mail: “Even before any official statement by the police, they have apparently already decided that he was radicalized by me based on some spurious, non-verifiable chats with old school friends of Ali Harbi Ali years ago and mysterious YouTube clips of me.
“In recent years, I have personally been unable to access the internet or deliver any lectures, let alone produce content on YouTube, from July 2015 when I was charged with supporting ISIS (another term for terror group Daesh) and July 2021 when my internet access and public speaking restrictions were finally lifted after release from prison in October 2018.
“Although I have delivered many talks and lectures over the years, there is currently no significant material to be found anywhere online due to its removal by social media companies at the behest of the UK authorities and others.
“It is therefore questionable as to how Ali Harbi Ali could have been ‘radicalized’ by YouTube clips of me,” he added.
Choudary has long drawn the ire of British authorities and the public for his hateful speeches and support for various terrorist organizations. His speeches have been associated with a series of terrorist attacks and extremist individuals in Britain.