Geagea: State Must be Positive With Sunnis to Prevent ISIL from Infiltrating Lebanon
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stated on Saturday that the state must behave well with the Sunni community in order to prevent any attempts on their part to engage in the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
“In order for the state to prevent Daesh from entering Lebanon, it must behave well with the Sunni community to prevent them from joining the ranks of Daesh,” said Geagea after meeting a public delegation from the region of Batroun.
“The Assad-Mamluk-Samaha conspiracy was uncovered lately and it aimed to bomb Sunni neighborhoods in Tripoli and Akkar,” he said, adding that “ the soft verdict of four-and-a-half years' jail term against Samaha could push some Sunnis to extremist organizations and join the ranks of Daesh.”
Geagea stressed the necessity to prevent any attempts to infiltrate Lebanon's border, in reference to the clashes taking place in Syria's al-Qalamoun which runs close to Lebanon's northeastern border town of Arsal.
The military court set a July 16 date for ex-minister Michel Samaha's retrial after it accepted an appeal filed by State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr, who argued that the four-and-a-half years' jail term was too lenient in light of the offenses that Samaha was convicted of.
The verdict had sparked a storm of criticism from al-Mustaqbal movement, the March 14 forces and civil society activists, who slammed the ruling as too light.
The trial had been postponed multiple times because of the absence of Mamluk, who remains in Syria, but after a judge separated the cases against the two men, a first trial session began on April 20.
The Lebanese judiciary has issued an arrest warrant for Mamluk and sent Syria a formal notification of the warrant and charges, but received no response.
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