MAIL ONLINE: Hate cleric Omar Bakri has been sentenced to life in prison by a military court in the Lebanon for allegedly helping to train members of Al Qaeda at a terror camp in Tripoli.The Syrian-born preacher, who was not in court when the punishment was handed out, was also accused of fund raising for Osama Bin Laden's fanatics in the middle eastern country.
He described the charges as 'absurd' and said they were politically motivated after the Lebanese government came under pressure from Britain and the US.
Speaking from a hide out where relatives are putting him up in a bid to escape jail, Bakri said: 'It was a military court and the judge was General Mizar Khalil who is a Shia Muslim, whereas I am a Sunni scholar.
'They say I have been training people in weapons in Tripoli. I have never held a weapon in my life. There were 54 brothers' names read out in court, and I was one of them.
'They gave 25 of us, including me, a life sentence, which is the maximum because we were absent. It was simply because we are Sunni Muslims. The whole thing is absurd. I did not even receive a summons. The first I knew about it was from media reports.
'I rang the court this morning and they said I have fifteen days to challenge the decision. But I am not going to court. It is against my religion. I do not believe in any man made laws be they in the UK or the Lebanon.
'God is my protector and I do not want to go to prison. But if it is his will that I spend the rest of my life behind bars, then so be it. I have no passport, no documents, I cannot go anywhere so they will find me. Read on and comment >>> Daily Mail Reporter | Thursday, November 12, 2010
