Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has lodged an appeal against his life sentence, which could cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal fees.

Firebrand Choudary, 57, who radicalized dozens of Islamist extremists, including the killers of soldier Lee Rigby, was jailed for at least 28 years in July for secretly running a banned terror group.

He was expected to die in prison but appealed to the High Court to try to overturn the sentence and conviction.

His latest legal battle could wind its way through the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights for years.

Last night Anthony Glees, a terrorism expert at Buckingham University, said: “This appeal is an appalling waste of taxpayers’ money.

Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has appealed against his life sentence

Lawyer Choudary is accused of radicalizing a generation of terrorists through ALM, including Michael Adebolajo, pictured

“There is no doubt in anyone’s mind, whether a humble juror or a High Court judge, that Choudary is an extremely dangerous bigot and that this country should be protected from the venom he spews.”

Last night, the Criminal Appeals Office at the High Court in London confirmed it had received Choudary’s appeal.

Choudary, from Ilford, east London, was convicted of running the terrorist organization Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), which was banned in 2006. Woolwich Crown Court heard he lectured online to the Islamic Thinkers Society (ITS), the US branch of ALM, which was trying to recruit members in the US and Canada.

The court was told that Choudary began redeveloping ITS in North America after he was released from a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence for inviting support for Islamic State.

Sentencing him in the ITS case, Mr Justice Mark Wall said Choudary was “front and center in the running of a terrorist organisation”.

His reasons for the appeal were not disclosed last night. But his former bodyguard Abu Izzadeen, who was jailed for four-and-a-half years for inciting terrorism in 2008, said Choudary believed his sentence “was astronomically high”.

Izzadeen, who was born Trevor Brooks, added: “I know people in prison who have committed a double murder and got less than that – a minimum of 28 years for something that is not murder.

Anjem Choudary (centre) with fellow demonstrators outside the Syrian Embassy, ​​protesting the alleged use of chemical weapons

They convicted him based on his media persona. Choudary has been a leading member of ALM since it was founded in the late 1990s.

Although the group officially disbanded in 2004, it survived in secret and adopted names such as the Saved Sect. He took over the leadership of ALM in 2005 after its then leader, Omar Bakri Muhammed, fled Britain for his native Lebanon.

Lawyer Choudary is accused of radicalizing a generation of terrorists through ALM, including Michael Adebolajo, 39, and Michael Adebowale, 33, who beheaded Rifleman Lee Rigby, 25, outside Woolwich Barracks in London in 2013.

Choudary also radicalized more than a dozen terrorists who went to Syria to join ISIS, including 32-year-old Siddhartha Dhar, who filmed himself shooting a victim in a propaganda video in 2016.