• Home

Sharjah police deny knowledge of Bakri's 'presence' in the UAE

A top official said the police didn't have any information about Bakri's presence in Sharjah or in the UAE . 'We don't have any information about this person, whether he is inside or outside the country', he said, adding that the cleric had been blacklisted from entering UAE.

Denying reports that Bakri has landed in Sharjah from Lebanon, where he had been on a visit, senior security officials said they checked the passenger arrival lists at various airports and confirmed that no one in his name has entered the country.

They were investigating the rumours, the police added.

There were also media reports that Bakri was still in Lebanon, which added to the confusion.

Mohammed Al Shafey, the London-based correspondent for the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al Sharq Al Awsat told Khaleej Times over the telephone yesterday that the cleric entered the UAE through Sharjah International Airport, and is looking for work as a preacher.

Al Shafey, who communicates with the cleric online, said that Bakri had not been in touch with him since yesterday.

UAE officials did not confirm, or deny his presence in the country.

When asked whether he was planning to set up an Islamic school or institution in the UAE, Al Shafey said: 'The man does not have money and he is poor. He cannot afford setting up any business. He may work as a preacher in a mosque, Islamic instructor, or imam.'

According to news reports, Bakri said he would return to Britain to defend himself against the charges leveled at him after visiting a number of Gulf countries to discuss the possibility of teaching Islam and Islamic jurisprudence there.

Syrian-born Bakri, founder and spiritual leader of the now defunct Al Muhajiroun organisation, sparked outrage last week when he said he would not inform police if he knew Muslims were planning a bomb attack on a train in Britain. He also supported Muslims who attack British troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Bakri - who went to Britain in 1985 as an asylum-seeker from Saudi Arabia - could face treason charges, if prosecutors and police can agree this week that they can successfully prosecute hardliners as traitors in the courts.

Omar Bakri Mohammed faces being stripped of his state handout money should he return to Britain, the Daily Mirror reported yesterday.

Bakri is said to have pocketed some £275,000 ($490,000 dollars) in state benefits during his 20 years in Britain.

Before flying to Beirut at the weekend, Bakri told London's Evening Standard newspaper that he hoped to undergo surgery at a British hospital by the end of the year to widen an artery.

The £7,500 ($13,500) operation would be paid for by the National Health Service.

• UAE