By Hussein Dakroub
BEIRUT: Former Cabinet minister Michel Samaha
is expected to be referred to a military tribunal Saturday following hard
evidence, including incriminating video footage, of the pro-President Bashar
Assad official’s alleged involvement in a plot to carry out terrorist attacks,
a senior security official said Friday.
“Unless the 48-hour precautionary detention is
renewed for another 48 hours for further interrogation, Samaha will be referred
to a military tribunal Saturday,” the official told The Daily Star.
“The case against Samaha constitutes a clear
and irrefutable condemnation following his confessions to his involvement in
the transportation of explosives from Syria to Lebanon for use in terrorist
attacks in areas in the north,” the official said, speaking on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
A military judge is expected to further
interrogate Samaha following his reported confessions that he was involved in
the terror plot and that he had transported explosives in his car from Syria to
Lebanon for this purpose, a judicial source told The Daily Star.
If the accusations are confirmed by a military
court, Samaha would be formally charged with plotting to carry out terrorist
attacks, possession of arms and explosives, and exposing the state security to
danger – a move that would lead to putting him on trial, the source said.
Samaha would face a prison sentence ranging from three years to life if
convicted of terror charges, the source added.
A pro-Syrian regime official, Samaha was
arrested by the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch Thursday on
suspicion of being involved in a plot to carry out bomb attacks in Lebanon in
collaboration with the Syrian regime.
Samaha – a longtime ally and friend of Assad,
two-time minister and former MP – was taken from his summer residence in Metn’s
Khanshara-Jwar to ISF headquarters in Beirut for questioning. Another police
unit stormed his residence in Ashrafieh.
Acting State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud, who
ordered the operations, told The Daily Star that Samaha’s case was part of a
wider probe into security threats facing the country.
Hammoud briefed Prime Minister Najib Mikati on
the outcome of the preliminary investigation with Samaha. Mikati urged Hammoud
to carry on with the investigation in order “to uncover the truth and achieve
justice in this case,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
Mikati also met with ISF Director General Maj.
Gen. Ashraf Rifi who briefed him on the role of security forces in arresting
Samaha and the circumstances that led to his detention, the NNA said.
Mikati praised the ISF’s work, saying that
“the current stage required intensified efforts by security forces to maintain
security and protect stability.”
Samaha’s case has jolted the already-divided
political landscape in Lebanon at a time when rival factions are sharply split over
the 17-month uprising in Syria. While the opposition March 14 parties strongly
support the armed rebellion’s aim to topple Assad, the Hezbollah-led March 8
alliance backs the regime.
Samaha’s arrest and his reported confessions
of the terror plot have apparently thrown the pro-Syrian regime March 8 parties
into disarray, reflecting their confusion on how to deal with this highly
sensitive issue.
Except for a statement by Hezbollah MP
Mohammad Raad in which he said the party would not keep silent over Samaha’s
arrest, none of the other major March 8 parties have so far come out in support
of the former minister.
Security sources said that police surveillance
of Samaha was crucial in exposing the pro-Assad figure’s alleged involvement in
the terror plot.
“This is what Bashar [Assad] wants,” security
sources quoted Samaha as saying in a video shot by a Lebanese undercover agent
for the ISF’s Information Branch. He was referring to bomb attacks meant to be
carried out in north Lebanon.
According to the sources, Samaha, 64, can be
seen in the video and heard saying that Syrian Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk had handed
him the bombs, in addition to cash to be distributed to would-be perpetrators
of the attacks in Lebanon.
When interrogators screened the video in his
presence, Samaha promptly admitted to being the man on film, the sources said.
The man who shot the video, a member of the
Kfouri family, was flown out of the country just before Samaha’s arrest over
fears for his safety, the sources added.
Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said in
comments to several media outlets that Samaha admitted to his involvement in a
“specific security case, but the issue remains undisclosed.”
“The final word in this case is left to the
judiciary. [The results] of the investigation will be sent to the judiciary in
order for the investigating judge to fully read it before issuing his decision
either to release Samaha or arrest him,” Charbel told the Voice of Lebanon
radio station.
Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi agreed that
the probe is top secret and that “no one knows what is inside.” He warned that
authorities will open an investigation to find out who was behind the “leaks.”
Security sources Thursday told The Daily Star
that Samaha had admitted he was involved in the plot to carry out bomb attacks
and that he had personally transferred a number of explosives from Syria to
Lebanon.
The sources added that “highly effective”
bombs ready to explode by remote control had earlier been found in various
areas of Lebanon.
The same sources told The Daily Star Friday
that after police collected evidence for the case and just before the bombs
were set to explode, Hammoud issued the order to detain Samaha.
The ISF Information Branch seized $170,000
from Samaha’s residence, the sources added. They said security was beefed up
around Hammoud’s house in Moseitbeh, Beirut, following Samaha’s arrest, as was
for his official escort.
Further information about the would-be attacks
indicated that the planting and the timing of the bombs were designed to coincide
with a visit to the northern region of Akkar by Maronite Patriarch Beshara Rai.
When asked to comment by The Daily Star, Rai
declined, but Bkirki issued a statement saying that the patriarch’s visit to
Tripoli and Akkar was scheduled for Aug. 13-16.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea
expressed hope that President Michel Sleiman and Mikati would prevent any
intervention by anyone in the ongoing investigation with Samaha in order “to
maintain what is left of the state’s prestige and the Lebanese confidence in
their country.”
“In the framework of the
ongoing delicate and serious investigation into the case of plotting terrorist
attacks in north Lebanon, we draw attention [to the fact] that it is the first
time a hand has been put directly on an attempt of this magnitude to plan
security incidents which, had they been successful, would have hit the Lebanese
in the heart,” Geagea told the Central News Agency. He was apparently
commenting on media reports that Assad had contacted a number of senior Lebanese
officials demanding their intervention to secure Samaha’s release.http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2012/Aug-11/184251-samaha-to-be-referred-to-military-tribunal-over-terror-plot.ashx#axzz22xdpMYwe
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