Anti-terror experts fear the conviction of Britain's most prolific jihadi recruiter could lead to a spike in people being influenced by his social media presence.

Anjem Choudary is facing up to a decade behind bars after he was found guilty of terror offences.

The extremist cleric has been convicted of inviting support for terror group Islamic State in a series of lectures released on YouTube.

Experts fear his conviction could have a knock-on effect with many more people viewing his social media postings for the first time.

"There will be a spike in interest in what he said and material he's produced," said counter-terrorism expert Andrew Silke.


"It will get a lot of viewings. A lot of people will see it for the first time now and obviously the fear is some of those people will be influenced by what they read and what they see."

Security sources believe Choudary is linked to 500 British jihadis who have fled the UK to join the terrorist organisation in Syria and Iraq.

Until now, Sky News has been unable to report his conviction after a judge imposed a reporting ban due to a linked trial of Choudary's associates from Luton, who were also accused of encouraging support for IS.

The juries in the two cases were not aware that they were sitting on connected cases in the same building at the Old Bailey.

Speaking exclusively to Sky News the night before his conviction last month, Choudary insisted he was merely exercising his right to freedom of speech.

Image: Mizanur Rahman was also found guilty of inviting support for a terrorist organisation

The 49-year-old from east London said: "If you look at my speeches, I have said the same thing for 20 years. For me, it is a matter of worship.

"If people are implementing the Sharia, then I cannot shy away from what the divine text says in relationship to that.

"If you cannot say when you believe in something and you cannot share that view, then you don't really have freedom to express yourself in this country."

The jury took less than three days in July to find Choudary and his co-accused Mizanur Rahman, 32, unanimously guilty of inviting support for a terrorist organisation.

Choudary and Rahman were found guilty on 28 July, but for legal reasons the verdicts could only be reported on Tuesday.

Choudary's key lieutenant, Siddhartha Dhar, was arrested at the same time as him in police raids in 2014.

Dhar later skipped bail and fled to Syria with his young family, where he began taunting the UK authorities with a series of pictures and online posts.

Britain's Most Prolific Jihadi Recruiter

He is also suspected of murdering a group of prisoners in an IS video released in January 2016.

Dhar, a Muslim convert now known as Abu Rumaysah, is believed to have replaced Mohammed Emwazi, the British IS killer nicknamed 'Jihadi John', as the terror group's executioner in chief, after Emwazi was killed in a US airstrikes in November 2015.

On Wednesday, it emerged that Anjem Choudary's wife is also under police investigation over comments she made in a documentary about British women who support Islamic State.

The programme, broadcast in November 2015, features undercover footage of Rubana Akhtar, referred to as Umm L, addressing a group of women and teenagers and hailing the establishment of a caliphate - a symbolic Muslim state - by Islamic State.

A reporter on Channel 4's Dispatches heard her saying: "The good days have already begun, nobody ever have thought in our lifetime we would see the establishment of the Khilafah (Islamic State)."

:: Anjem Choudary's Conviction Ends Years Of Police Cat And Mouse

Scotland Yard have confirmed that an investigation was launched in the wake of the documentary, and is ongoing.

Choudary's conviction comes after a two-year, multimillion-pound investigation by Scotland Yard designed to bring to an end his two decades of extremist preaching.

The trial was the most crucial test of the limits of free speech in a decade, since the conviction of another hate preacher, Abu Hamza.

Choudary swore the oath of allegiance to the leader of IS after a meeting in an east London restaurant with a group of five followers.

Image: Siddhartha Dhar was arrested but later fled to Syria

It came just three days after Abu Bakr al Baghdadi declared he had re-established the ancient Islamic Caliphate.

Choudary and Rahman then delivered a series of lectures using religious passages to justify their support and urged others to follow their example.

One of the obligations both men talked about was to "make hijrah" - meaning to travel to the Islamic State - the court heard.

Choudary's speeches sometimes involved stirring his audience to fever pitch, as they shouted "Takbir!" and "Allahu Akbar!", meaning god is greatest.

He talked of violent jihad, quoting theologians and telling his audience: "We initiate the jihad against the kuffar [disbelievers] to make the name of Allah in the highest.

"Next time when your child is at school and the teacher asks, 'What is your ambition?', they should say, 'To dominate the whole world by Islam, including Britain, that is my ambition'."

Choudary shot to prominence after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, holding a news conference to praise Osama Bin Laden.

He did exactly the same four years later after the 7/7 bombings in London - but this time the attackers had links to his own extremist group.

He was also close friends with Michael Adebelajo, one of the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby - and caused more outrage when he claimed the young soldier would be burning in hell.

Image: Lee Rigby's killers, including Michael Adebolajo (above), attended Choudary's events

But despite repeated horribly insensitive remarks, he always managed to stay on the right side of the law.

Richard Whittam QC, prosecuting, told the Old Bailey: "Terrorist organisations thrive and grow because people support them and that is what this case is about.

"Do not confuse that with the right of people to follow the religion of their choice or to proclaim support for the principle of an Islamic State or Caliphate."

The jury was told it was not illegal to think IS are a "good thing" nor to express those views to others, but it was unlawful to "invite support".

The prosecution said Choudary and Rahman sought to "validate the legitimacy" of both IS and Baghdadi, and in doing so emphasised the obligation on others to obey or provide support.

In the end, it was not the hate-filled rhetoric that did for Choudary, but the subtle, insidious support he offered a terrorist organisation.

In his interview with Sky News, he was on typically bullish form trying to insist that he had won over the jury.

Image: Choudary will be sentenced in September

The very next morning, in a unanimous verdict, they found him guilty.

He will be sentenced at the Old Bailey in September.

In the linked trial, three men have been found guilty of "infecting the young minds of children" by encouraging support for IS.

Mohammed Istiak Alamgir, Yousaf Bashir and Rajib Khan gave speeches at a series of meetings in Luton during Ramadan last year, attended by up to 80 people including young children.

Khan was also convicted by a majority of nine jurors to one at the Old Bailey of arranging one of the meetings at a local church.

The jury of 10 was unable to reach verdicts on two co-defendants - Mohammed Choudry and Zaiur Rahman - who will face a retrial at the Old Bailey on 14 November.