Omar Bakri Charged with Belonging to Terror Groups
The military prosecutor charged on Tuesday Islamist cleric Omar Bakri, who was arrested last month, with belonging to terrorist organizations and for plotting to establish an Islamic state in Lebanon.
The state-run National News Agency said the charges issued by Judge Saqr Saqr against Bakri include belonging to armed terrorist groups, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Qaida, and working to establish an Islamic state.
Bakri was also charged with weapons and explosives training and preaching against the state and the Lebanese army. His preaching targets patriotism and ignite civil war, the charges said.
Saqr referred Bakri to the first Military Examining Magistrate Judge Riyad Abu Ghida.
The Lebanese authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Bakri for involvement in the clashes in the northern city of Tripoli but he fled to an unknown destination in April.
He was apprehended by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau at his residence in the Mount Lebanon town of Aley on May 25.
Bakri lived in Britain for almost 20 years before settling in Lebanon in 2005 after he was banned from London under government curbs following the underground and bus bombings that year.
The Syrian-born cleric, who also holds Lebanese nationality, has denied he has any links to al-Qaida although he said he believed in "the same ideology."
G.K.
H.K.
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