BEIRUT: Omar Bakri, the militant Sunni cleric arrested over the weekend by security forces after being sentenced to life imprisonment for “terrorism” offenses, announced the appointment of Hizbullah MP Nawwar al-Sahili as his lawyer Monday.
Bakri was tried in absentia and handed a life sentence Friday for supporting contraband groups and inciting an incident in 2007 which saw gunmen clash with Lebanese Army soldiers in the northern Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared, near Tripoli.
Bakri was arrested Sunday after fleeing his home in the northern port city before surrendering himself to security forces after his vehicle came under fire.
He will face a retrial at the hands of a permanent military prosecutor, who Monday requested that the cleric be handed over to the court. Bakri is currently being held in Beirut by Internal Security Forces (ISF) intelligence officers and has boasted that he will not spend “a day” in prison.
A judicial source said Bakri was likely to be retried after his arrest because he was initially sentenced in absentia. The second decision might differ from the first verdict.
Head of the ISF, Major General Ashraf Rifi, hailed the efforts exerted by his agency’s Information Branch which led to Bakri’s arrest. “The Information Branch is an active and enthusiastic division which has succeeded in all its missions and performed them in a professional and honorable manner,” said Rifi in a statement carried by the state-run National News Agency. –The Daily Star
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