London (CNN) British Islamist preacher Anjem Choudary has been released from prison.

The 51-year-old self-styled cleric, jailed in 2016 for inviting support for ISIS, was let out of the high-security Belmarsh prison in southeast London on Friday morning.

A former solicitor, he had previously stayed on the right side of the law for years and was popular with British television networks.

He was due for automatic release halfway through his five-and-a-half-year sentence, when time served is taken into account.

He will be subject to a strict supervision regime, and has been taken to a probation hostel instead of going home to his wife and family in the east London suburb of Ilford.

Read More