Radical Muslim preacher arrested and imprisoned in Lebanon

A Syrian-born Muslim cleric who preached radical Islam from his base in north London for 20 years has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Lebanon.

Omar Bakri Muhammad, known as the “Tottenham Ayatollah”, has been captured by police in Lebanon and was jailed on 14 November 2010, days after bragging he would not serve a day of a life sentence.

"I will not hand myself in to any court. I do not believe in the law in Britain as in Lebanon," he told reporters after was tried in absentia and the verdict announced on 12 November 2010.

Mr Bakri, 50, who lived in Britain but left after the 7/7 London bombings, was banned from returning to the country. British authorities barred him because his presence was “not conducive to public good”. Reports say he had disappeared after being convicted by a Lebanese military court last week of inciting murder and possessing explosives.

He received a life sentence because he failed to turn up to court. He has been ordered to report to prison within 15 days but has said he will not do so on religious grounds, insisting that he was answerable to no "man-made court".

Mr Bakri came to Britain in 1985 after being expelled from Saudi Arabia and was granted political asylum. He has founded al-Muhajiroun, an Islamist group that has since been banned. Shortly after the 7 July 2005 London bombings Tony Blair announced the group would be banned as part of a series of measures against condoning or glorifying terrorism.

The Syrian-born cleric, who also holds Lebanese nationality, said he had no links to Al-Qaeda although he believed in "the same ideology."

Sources:

Daily Telegraph
BBC News
This is London
Daily Mail
CNN News

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