Life term for Muslim cleric

A RADICAL Muslim cleric has been convicted on terrorism charges in a military court which sentenced him in absentia to life in prison, Lebanese officials said yesterday.

Omar Bakri Mohammed, who has Syrian citizenship, lived in Britain for 20 years where he headed the now-disbanded radical Islamist group al-Muhajiroun.

He left Britain for Lebanon in 2005 and the British government barred him from returning.

The Lebanese officials say Bakri was among 54 people sentenced yesterday as part of ongoing trials of militants.

Bakri, who lives in the hotbed Sunni fundamentalist town of Tripoli, said he would never turn himself in. He claimed the charges are “lies and fabrications”.