Officials Condemn Samaha Verdict as Jumblat Says it 'Legalizes Assassinations'

Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Jumblat criticized on Thursday the sentence issued by the military court against former Minister Michel Samaha.

“The court's verdict in Samaha's case legalizes assassinations and explosions,” he said in a statement.

“The verdict can only be described as a judicial, military, and political scandal that avoids the implementation of the law and justice against those who oversaw the execution of crimes and terrorist bombings,” he added.

“This light verdict contradicts all political and legal factors and leads us to addressing the case of the military judiciary … which has exceeded its privileges,” he continued.

The MP noted that Samaha's verdict demands that the military tribunal's jurisdiction in tackling crimes be reconsidered and allow normal courts to play their role.

“The verdict should therefore be reconsidered in order to avoid allowing this incident to pave the way to legalizing terrorism and murder, which would ignite the internal Lebanese scene for the interests of regional axes in a manner that would ensure their survival at the expense of Lebanon's stability,” Jumblat remarked.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi later added: “We will stay in our fight towards the building of the state against the mini-state.”

He said he is planning to amend the law of the military court.

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq said after a cabinet session held at the Grand Serail: “We will exert efforts to avoid the repetition of such verdicts in future cases and to ensure that all Lebanese are treated equally.”

Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea voiced his support for Rifi's position on the verdict, saying: “It is time to abolish exceptional trial, starting with military ones.”

He added, via Twitter, that there should be a return to civil trials.

The minister had declared in the wake of the verdict on Wednesday that it fell short of his expectations.

“I announce to the Lebanese people the death of the Military Court and we will utilize all means to amend the law of military trials,” he said.

Geagea added: “The verdict diminishes the Lebanese people's trust in the state and in the existence of justice.”

The tribunal sentenced on Wednesday Samaha to four-and-a-half years in jail over terrorism charges.

Samaha, arrested in August 2012, would be released at the end of this year taking into account time served and because the judicial year amounts to nine months in Lebanon.

He was found guilty of "having tried to carry out terrorist actions and for belonging to an armed group" and was also stripped of his civic and political rights.

The defense team argues that the former minister fell into a trap set by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch.

Samaha, who was also once an adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, admitted in court last month that he had transported explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon, but argued he had been the victim of entrapment.

The explosives were to be used in blasts on the Lebanese border, intended to force the closure of the frontier and stop the passage of Lebanese fighters joining rebel forces in Syria.

The prosecution had charged Samaha and Syrian security services chief Ali Mamlouk with transporting explosives and planning attacks and assassinations of political and religious figures in Lebanon.

The trial was postponed multiple times because of the absence of Mamlouk, who remains in Syria, until a judge separated the two cases, allowing Samaha's trial to open on April 20.

Syria maintained a nearly 30-year presence in Lebanon, withdrawing its troops in 2005 after the assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

But a series of assassinations of prominent anti-Syrian regime figures in Lebanon followed the withdrawal.

Samaha could have faced the death penalty if convicted in the trial.

The Lebanese judiciary has issued an arrest warrant for Mamlouk and sent Syria a formal notification of the warrant and charges, but received no response.

Samaha's trial came amid continuing tensions in Lebanon over the Syrian conflict that began in March 2011 with protests against Assad's regime.

Beirut has maintained an official policy of neutrality on the war, but the violence has regularly spilled over its borders and exacerbated existing sectarian tensions.

M.T.

G.K.