By Youssef Diab
BEIRUT: Lebanese judicial sources
denied Tuesday local media reports that former Information Minister Michel
Samaha had recanted the confession he made during police interrogation.
“If reports that Samaha withdrew his
earlier statements are true, therefore the military judge would have been
convinced and Samaha would have been released,” one source told The Daily Star.
“But the mere fact that the arrest
warrant is still in place for Samaha is proof that the reports are baseless,”
the source added.
Military Judge Riad Abu Ghida
adjourned Samaha’s interrogation over his alleged role in terror plots until
Thursday.
Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television
quoted judicial sources as saying that Samaha withdrew his testimony before
Ghida Monday, claiming that he had given the statements under pressure.
Al-Manar said Samaha had confessed
to transferring explosives from Syria to Lebanon with the aim of using them to
prevent opponents of the Syrian regime from smuggling militants and weapons
through Lebanon’s northern border, rather than to carry out a plot to
destabilize the country.
However, judicial sources told The
Daily Star the Al-Manar reports were unfounded, adding that Samaha’s lawyers
were behind such “rumors.”
Marada movement leader MP Sleiman
Franjieh said Monday Samaha had confessed to attempting to target the Free
Syrian Army and the routes to smuggle arms from Lebanon to Syria, adding that
his confessions were manipulated by the Information Branch for political
reasons.
Youssef Finyanous, one of Samaha's
lawyers, is a Marada movement member and Franjieh’s personal lawyer.
Judicial sources, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that undercover agent Milad Kfouri would
be summoned for questioning if need be.
Kfouri, who sources identified as
having provided incriminating footage in the Samaha case, was reportedly flown
outside the country just before the police raids on Samaha’s residences in
Ashrafieh, Beirut, and Metn’s Khanshara-Jwar, for fear over his safety.
In his confessions before the ISF
Information Branch, Samaha said Syrian President Bashar Assad had desired bomb
attacks in Lebanon.
The sources said the defense attorneys have the
right to demand Kfouri’s summoning but that the judge has the final say
depending on what serves the probe best.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Aug-14/184654-reports-of-samaha-recanting-confession-baseless-sources.ashx#axzz23dVigVXM
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