By
Youssef Diab
BEIRUT:
Beirut Investigative Judge Ghassan Oweidat issued long-awaited indictments
Thursday for 148 Islamists allegedly involved in the 2007 Palestinian refugee
camp clashes with the Lebanese Army.
Some
83 of the indicted suspects have been in detention since the clashes ended
between soldiers and the militant group Fatah al-Islam, with Oweidat recommending
the death penalty for all but one of them.
The
suspects were accused of targeting the internal security of the state by
funding and carrying out terrorist operations, as well as forming a group aimed
at killing Army officers, soldiers and civilians.
They
were also charged with undermining the state’s authority and carrying out
crimes against its people.
Oweidat’s
decision, issued five years since the end of the bloody clashes and the
detention of some 180 Islamists without charge, comes in the form of a 447-page
indictment.
Relatives
of the detainees intensified their protests this year in a bid to pressure the
government to speed up their trials. Government officials and Justice Minister
Shakib Qortbawi have since vowed to pay special attention to finalizing the
indictments.
Separately,
the judge also issued arrest warrants for 224 suspects who are still at large.
Fifty-five suspects are still under investigation, and are yet to be fully
identified.
Oweidat
also cleared 101 people due to lack of evidence, and asked authorities not to
pursue 160 men because they are dead. Several of these suspects died in prison,
while the rest were killed during the fighting in Nahr al-Bared.
Oweidat
transferred the case to the State Prosecutor’s office with the names of the
suspects.
The indictment was based on
a judicial review of events in Nahr al-Bared submitted by General Prosecutor
Saeed Mirza, and the suspects are of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian and Saudi
Arabian nationalities.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Jul-20/181281-nahr-al-bared-indictments-finally-issued.ashx#axzz20mFkUNDx
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