The Lebanese appeals court attorney general Said Mirza expressed “shock” at the decision taken by a Lebanese military court last week to release four people convicted of collaborating with Israel.
But Hezbollah got the message straight away. Hezbollah’s MP Nawwar Sahili and its Coordination and Liaison Unit chief, Wafiq Safa, visited judge Mirza at his office on Tuesday to understand what happened.
However both left the meeting without making a statement. They also met with justice minister Shakib Kortbawi for the same reason and left without making a statement yet again.
Sahili then went straight to parliament to hold a press conference. He told the press that article 88 of the military code of justice “requires making a decision within two months of release.” He went on to remind those present that the president of the court can bring court dates forward “in order to remedy the grave mistake that happened, which unfortunately encourages treason.”
But after outlining the legality of reversing the decision, Sahili refused to elaborate on his party’s views as to how to remedy the problem. It seems his statement was an indirect message to the president of the military court’s judge, Alice Shebtini, and the four officers of the court, to speed up the sentencing process of the released Israeli agents, thereby returning them to prison to serve their sentence.
Sources say that Mirza is still preoccupied with the question of the consent of the court’s four officers to release the convicted spies.
One observer noted that Mirza does not want all the pressure to fall on Shebtini. He wants all the members of the court – who unanimously agreed on the decision of the release – to be held responsible.
The question of whether the judge made the proper decision is still up for debate. Some argue the decision is permissible according to procedure.
But one judicial source said that the decision was flawed because article 92 of the military code of justice states that appealing a sentence does not suspend it in the case of a felony. The article only allows the court of appeals to release the appellant on bail if he/she is convicted of a misdemeanor.
In this case, those released have been convicted of felonies and therefore they can not be released. It should be noted that the bail was set at LL1,000,000 (or about US$665).
The same judicial source also cast doubt on Shebtini’s justification that three of the four released convicts are sick, saying the claim needed to be verified. Shebtini had accepted the appeal about six months ago. Why didn’t she decide the case and issue a ruling? Difficult health conditions demand speeding up the ruling and not releasing people on bail.
The case therefore has been subject to different legal and political interpretations. Some observers fear that it might be watered down by postponing the trial indefinitely, similar to what happened in the McDonald’s case which has been awaiting trial since 1999.
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