UK charges radical preacher Choudary with inviting support for ISIS

LONDON -- Authorities in Britain have charged radical preacher Anjem Choudary and another man with inviting support for the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Wednesday that Choudary, 48, and Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, 32, have been charged with supporting ISIS, which is a banned organization. The service said the offenses occurred from June 29, 2014, until March 6 of this year.

"We have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to prosecute Anjem Choudary and Mohammed Rahman for inviting support for ISIL, a proscribed terrorist organisation," said Sue Hemming, head of special crime and counter-terrorism at the CPS, in a statement.

"It is alleged that Anjem Choudary and Mohammed Rahman invited support for ISIS in individual lectures which were subsequently published online," she said.

Each man is charged with one offence under Britain's Terrorism Act 2000. They were set to appear on Wednesday at Westminster Magistrates Court.

Choudary is the former leader of a banned radical group called al-Muhajiroun. A British-born lawyer turned Islamic preacher, he has for years been asserting his democratic right to call for an end to democracy.

"You cannot have man legislating and playing God in Parliament, and at the same time believe that Allah is the only legislator," Choudary told CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward in a June 2014 interview.