Lebanese authorities detains and frees Islamist Omar Bakri

The Lebanese authorities detained in Beirut the Islamic scholar and leader of al-Ghuraba (strangers) group in Britain, Omar al-Bakri, where he had arrived several days ago coming from London.

News reports in Beirut, including from al-Jazeera TV, said that the Lebanese general security detained Bakri after he left the building of the Lebanese al-Mustaqbal ( future) TV in the Rawsheh area in west Beirut after he had made a TV interview.

The reports added that the General Security officers interrogated the news chief editor of the TV station, Imad Assi, and the journalist who did the interview with al-Bakri Osama Ibrahim.

The Islamic scholar denied in the interview which he had with the TV station, owned by the family of the late Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, that he had worked with any terrorism organization or any was involved in acts against the security of Lebanon or Britain.

Bakri who was threatened with arrest following the new measures to fight terrorism, announced by the British prime minister Tony Blair, flew from Britain to Lebanon of Saturday via Germany.

In March, 2004, Bakri had expressed his happiness following the Madrid-Spain explosions and his approval for the actions of those who attacked the British soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A Lebanese security official said that Bakri entered Lebanon from the airport normally without detention because he was not wanted by the Lebanese authorities. Worthy mentioning that Bakri, of a Syrian origin and has the Lebanese nationality since the 1980s, stated last Friday that he would not notify the authorities about preparations by Muslims planning an attack in Britain even if he knew about their schemes.

Meantime, the Guardian Unlimited reported today that Bakri was released today and that the Lebanese prosecutor general said "determining he had committed no crime" and there are no criminal records against him.