The Daily Star - Accusations fly as Aoun-Future maintain faceoff over Karam - September 07, 2011

BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun attacked the legitimacy of the trial of Fayez Karam Tuesday, accusing the Internal Security Force’s Information Branch of destroying vital evidence, while the Future Movement denounced Karam and the FPM’s defense of him.
Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam, a senior FPM official, was sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison over the weekend, one year after being charged with collaborating with Israel and providing the Israeli intelligence agency with political information about the FPM and Hezbollah.
“Who has the right to destroy such evidence before the end of the trial? Why was the evidence destroyed?” Aoun asked, in reference to the Information Branch’s records of preliminary interrogations with Karam.
Speaking during his weekly press conference, Aoun also questioned the circumstances under which Karam was interrogated.
“To this day we don’t know how Karam admitted to [collaborating with Israel] in such a cool way … and we also don’t know in what circumstances he was being interrogated and if he was even drugged before the interrogation,” said Aoun.
In 2005, Karam accompanied Aoun to Beirut, after 15 years in exile.
Aoun also commented on the verdict that was issued against Karam last week, saying that it was based on a doubtful confession.
“I don’t think Karam would have told the head of the Information Branch, Wissam Hassan, that he collaborated with Israel unless he was forced to say so. Back then, I said that Karam was somehow forced to say it,” said Aoun.
“I also said that I would accept the accusations if they were proved … but after a while they [Information Branch] started to stress only the preliminary interrogation,” Aoun added.
Aoun also said that Karam’s trial reminded him of Lebanese Force’s leader Samir Geagea’s trial for the bombing of Zouk Lady Najat Church in 1994, which many criticized for being politically motivated.
Meanwhile, the Future Movement fiercely criticized the FPM’s defense of Karam Tuesday and called on Aoun to denounce the treachery committed by Karam against Lebanon.
In their weekly meeting, the Future Movement said that the continuous statements made by the FPM Karam’s defense, and their attack on the judiciary, raises several questions.
“Such criticism raises a question whether the leadership of the FPM was aware of Karam’s collaboration with Israel … was this collaboration with Israel an individual act?” demanded the party’s statement, read by Akkar MP Khaled Daher.
Daher also criticized Hezbollah for the party’s silence in the face of the FPM’s defense of a someone convicted of collaborating with Israel.
“Do we have distinction now between one collaborator and another? It is clear today that there are collaborators who receive short sentences that resemble that of another crime and other collaborators receive the most severe sentences because they don’t belong to the FPM, which is allied with Hezbollah,” the statement added.
The statement also said that Karam’s indictment is a great achievement for the Lebanese Security Forces and the Information Branch.