By Youssef Diab
BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities summoned
pro-Syrian former MP and Cabinet Minister Michel Samaha for interrogation
Thursday over an undisclosed but "sensitive" security-related matter,
Acting Prosecutor General Samir Hammoud told The Daily Star. His secretary,
driver and two bodyguards were also detained.
"He [Samaha] has been taken in for
questioning over a sensitive judicial matter," Hammoud said.
"We are now at the interrogation stage
the outcome of which will determine whether he will be arrested or let
go," he added.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed that
Samaha's detention was security-related and has nothing to do with
collaboration with Israel or a U.N.-backed court probing the 2005 assassination
of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"Samaha was arrested ... for questioning
over mere security issues,” Mikati told a delegation of the Editors'
Association. "We are waiting for the outcome of the investigation."
Security sources told The Daily Star that
authorities raided Samaha's residences in Ashrafieh, Beirut, and Khanshara,
Metn, early Thursday upon orders from Hammoud.
Samaha, 64, was taken from his Khanshara home
at 2 a.m., the sources added.
"He was in his pajamas," his wife
said.
Police from the Internal Security Forces
Information Branch cordoned off both residences, preventing news reporters and
photographers from approaching.
The sources said police filled several large
black bags with confiscated documents, a computer set, video tapes and cellular
phones from the Khanshara residence.
“One of the bags was extremely heavy. It took
four policemen to carry it to the car,” one source said.
Five cars, including Sahama's Mercedes-Benz,
were also seized.
The search was called off shortly after midday
and journalists were allowed in.
“My husband was arrested for political
reasons,” Samaha's wife Gladys told reporters in Khanshara.
She said Samaha was part of a political camp
in Lebanon and that she was “waiting for that political team to make a move” in
his defense.
A resident and close friend of Samaha said
Khanshara residents condemned the raid.
“They resent the way in which Samaha was
detained,” the resident said. “They broke into the house in the middle of [the
Samahas'] sleep instead of knocking at the door.”
Speculation was rife over the reasons for
Samaha’s detention, with local media outlets providing different accounts of
the affair.
MTV said Samaha was detained over his alleged
involvement in an "assassination attempt" against Akkar MP Khaled
Daher, a member of Saad Hariri’s Future bloc. Daher said he was surprised to
hear the news.
A police report had said a percussion grenade
was hurled at 2:30 a.m. Wednesday into an empty lot that belongs to Daher's
father in the Nejmeh neighborhood of Bibnine, in the northern Akkar region. No
casualties were reported.
Other media outlets said Samaha may have been
arrested for collaboration with Israel. But LBCI said such reports were
inaccurate.
Samaha, a close ally of
Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, was elected MP in 1992, in the first
parliamentary elections after the Taif Agreement. He also served as information
minister in 1992 and 2003.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Aug-09/183967-former-mp-and-cabinet-minister-michel-samaha-arrested.ashx#axzz22xdpMYwe
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