Daily Star - Fayez Karam released, says detention political, April 03, 2012

BEIRUT: Fayez Karam, the former Lebanese Army officer and politician convicted of passing information to Israel, said after his release from prison Tuesday that his detention was political.

"My detention and release were political par excellence," Karam, a close aide to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, told reporters following his release from the military police headquarters in suburban Baabda.

Immediately after his release around 1:15 p.m., Karam headed to Rabieh to meet Aoun, after which he made his way to his residence in Kaslik, north of Beirut.

Karam's lawyer, Rashad Salameh, said the retired brigadier general was released after having completed his two-year prison term.

Salameh explained that Karam’s release was in line with Parliament’s recent decision to reduce the prison year from 12 to nine months.

"Karam benefits from the new law," Salameh told The Daily Star.

Military prosecutor Saqr Saqr has circulated a notice to prisons across Lebanon instructing them to be sure to abide by the new law.

In September, Karam, 62, was found guilty of contacting Israeli intelligence and providing them with information on Hezbollah and its ally the FPM, of which the retired brigadier general is a member.

The verdict did not find Karam guilty of spying for Israel.

Karam’s release drew swift reaction from the Future Movement.

“Will the fighter, Brig. Gen. Fayez Karam, celebrate the liberation of south Lebanon on May 25, 2012?” Future Movement Secretary General Ahmad Hariri asked sarcastically.

“Fayez Karam should become minister of labor and collaboration,” Hariri mocked on his twitter account.

Karam was the first political figure to be detained in Lebanon as part of a wide-ranging investigation launched in 2009 into Israeli spy networks.

He had headed the Lebanese Army's anti-terrorism and counter-espionage unit during the 1980s and was close to Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun, who was army commander toward the end of the 1975-1990 Civil War.

Aoun, who declared a “war of liberation” against the Syrian army in Lebanon in 1989, entered into a controversial alliance with Hezbollah in 2006, a year after his return to Lebanon from exile in France.

More than 100 people have been arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel since April 2009, including members of the Lebanese Army and the Internal Security Forces as well as telecom employees.


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