CAIRO, June 6: The Arab League rejected an Israeli court's condemnation of top Palestinian activist Marwan Barghouti to life imprisonment on Sunday as "null and void".

"The sentence is null and void because the Israeli tribunal is illegal," Hussam Zaki, spokesman for the league's chief Amr Mussa, told AFP. "History has taught us that a people whose lands are occupied and whose rights have been trampled end up victorious," said Zaki, praising Barghouti as a "militant nationalist with a glorious past".

Barghouti vowed the intifada would triumph as he was handed five life sentences for murder by a court in Tel Aviv. His lawyer said he would not appeal against the sentence, which came after he was found guilty three weeks ago of being directly responsible for four militant attacks killing five people.