Judge Saqr charges Omar Bakri Fostok with belonging to terrorist groups

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr filed on Tuesday a lawsuit against hardline Salafist cleric Omar Bakri Fostok on charges of belonging to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), and plotting to establish an Islamic state.

Bakri was also charged with weapons and explosives training and preaching against the Lebanese state and the Lebanese Armed Forces, and instigating civil strife.

Judge Saqr referred Bakri to the first Military Examining Judge Riyad Abu Ghaida.

The Lebanese authorities had issued an arrest warrant for Bakri for his involvement in the clashes that took place in the northern city of Tripoli but the latter had fled to an unknown destination in April.

He was arrested by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau at his residence in the Mount Lebanon town of Aley on May 25.

Bakri lived in Britain for almost 20 years before returning to Lebanon in 2005 after he was banned from London following the underground and bus bombings that year.

The Syrian-born cleric, who also holds the Lebanese nationality, has denied having any links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network although he previously said he believed in "the same ideology."