Arrested cleric picks Hezbollah MP as his lawyer- update

Radical Islamic preacher Omar Bakri Muhammad who was arrested by Lebanese police in Tripoli on Sunday, has decided to pick Hezbollah MP Nawwar Sahili as his defense lawyer, National News Agency (NNA) reported on Monday.

This comes 2 days after asking for the help of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in escaping justice.

According to observers the cleric may have been impressed with the way the Iranian backed militant group has helped others escape justice . Hezbollah bodyguards invaded the Beirut airport last September in order to receive former General Security chief Jamil as-Sayyed who is wanted by the Lebanese judiciary. Sayyed was taken to the VIP launch of Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport without the needed permission from the ministry of Foreign affairs and was later taken home under heavy security.

Bakri, a radical Sunni who has praised the September 11, 2001 attacks describing the hijackers as the “magnificent 19″, was sentenced to life in prison by a Lebanese military court on Thursday.

The day after the sentence was handed down he vowed he would “not spend one day in prison.”

Bakri, 50 lived in the UK for nearly 20 years after seeking political asylum in 1986 and being granted indefinite leave to remain. He ran the radical Islamist group, al-Muhajiroun, from north London until it was disbanded in 2004.

Lebanese officials said Bakri was among 54 people sentenced Friday as part of ongoing trials of militants who fought the Lebanese army in 2007. Bakri was convicted of membership of an armed group aiming to commit terrorist acts and plotting to kill Lebanese soldiers, incitement to murder, theft and the possession of arms and explosives.

He now faces a retrial because his first trial was held in absentia.

Update: yesterday we reported that Bakri picked Hezbollah MP Nawwar Sahili as his defense lawyer, but according to media reports it was Hezbollah that appointed Sahili as Bakri’s lawyer .

On Saturday asked for the help of Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in escaping justice.

Police said Bakri tried to escape in a car as the patrol closed in on his house in Tripoli, prompting an officer to open fire to prevent him from escaping.