slamist hate preacher Anjem Choudary arrives at London
Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has arrived at a probation hostel in north London following his release from prison.
The 51-year-old, who was jailed in 2016 for inviting support for the terror group Islamic State, left Belmarsh prison in London half way through his sentence on Friday morning.
Just after 4am, he was driven from the southeast London jail in a people carrier with blacked out windows, escorted by two unmarked police cars.
Choudary did not return home and has instead been taken to a secure bail hostel.
He was accompanied walking up the front steps to the six-storey property, wearing blue Adidas trainers and a grey cardigan over a long white robe.
The Islamist preacher qualified for automatic release after reaching the halfway point of a five-and-a-half-year sentence, when time spent on remand was taken into account.
For the rest of the sentence period, he will be subject to a strict supervision regime, with around 25 licence conditions.
Chris Phillips, former head of the national counter terrorism security office, said Choudary's release is a "concern" and will exhaust the resources of police and security services.
He told Sky News: "It will be difficult but this is a long-term issue.
"It's not something you can keep him on tab for a day, a week, a month.
"But of course we are talking about a long time into the future and in six months, 12 months' time he's still going to be a concern and that is a large amount of resources for the police and security services just don't have."Choudary, from Ilford, east London, will be supervised under the government's Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (Mappa).
Police and MI5 will be among a host of agencies involved in monitoring him in the community.
There are a number of standard requirements, including maintaining good behaviour, receiving visits from and keeping in contact with his supervising probation officer, and not travelling outside the UK without prior permission.
