By Hussein Dakroub BEIRUT: A military court released militant Islamic cleric Sheikh Omar Bakri for a LL5 million bail Wednesday, ten days after his arrest on terrorism charges, said a judicial source.
The release came after the court began Wednesday a retrial of Bakri on charges of belonging, along with other suspects, to an armed organization plotting to attack people, undermine state authority, incite violence, possess arms and shelter wanted people with the aim of establishing an Islamic state in Lebanon starting from the northern city of Tripoli.
Hizbullah MP Nawar al-Sahly, Bakri’s lawyer, said that some witnesses’ testimonies indicated that the cleric has nothing to do with the charges leveled against him. Sahly said that he was defending Bakri on orders from Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
During the retrial attended by Sahly, Bakri categorically denied charges of belonging to Al-Qaeda, Fatah al-Islam group or any other fundamentalist or Salafi organization, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Bakri denied reports claiming that he was a spiritual guide of a fundamentalist group.
Bakri also denied charges that he trained people on the use of arms, saying he does not know how to use arms. He denied he was involved in any security or political activity in Lebanon, saying that his activity was confined to teaching the rules of Islamic jurisprudence in English through the internet.
Likewise, Bakri dismissed charges of a plan to establish an Islamic state in northern Lebanon, saying that he heard about such a plan in the news.
Asked why his name was linked to such a plan, Bakri told the court, “I think this happened because I am opposed to the American and British systems. It was aimed at silencing my voice which opposed their [US-British] policies in the region and Muslim countries.”
Bakri said that his previous statements on militant groups were made “under pressure and coercion.”
Bakri said that his previous statements on militant groups were made “under pressure and coercion.”
The release request was presented by Sahly to the court headed by General Nizar Khalil. After hearing testimony from witnesses Omar Hadeba and Nabil Rahim, both of them convicted of the same charges, the court adjourned until December 7.
Bakri was arrested on November 14, three days after a court sentenced him and 21 other people to life in prison for carrying out “terrorist acts.” He was arrested outside his home in Tripoli following a violent standoff with security forces. He has been referred to investigating magistrate Saqr Saqr to begin the process of a retrial. The decision to re-try Bakri was taken after his arrest rendered the trial in absentia void.
Bakri was found guilty along with 53 individuals of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and Saudi nationalities of terrorism charges. Of those convicted, 22 were sentenced in absentia, including Bakri, who claimed ignorance of the trial and challenged security forces to arrest him in an interview with The Daily Star.
The controversial cleric, who has joint Lebanese-Syrian nationality, spent 20 years preaching in Britain following involvement with Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb ut-Tahrir in Lebanon. He shot to notoriety following the September 11 attacks in the United States, praising the perpetrators as the “magnificent 19.” He returned to Tripoli after being barred by the UK government of traveling to London.
In court Wednesday, Bakri denied he was deported from Britain. “I moved to Lebanon at my own will because of the harassment exercised by British authorities on Islamists,” he said.
Bakri has two wives – one British and one Lebanese – and is awaiting the birth of his eighth child.
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