Youssef Diab
A judge requested the death penalty Friday for two alleged would-be suicide bombers, a Frenchman and a Saudi, and for three Lebanese suspects accused of being part an ISIS-affiliated group behind suicide-bomb plots in Beirut.
In his indictment, Judge Riad Abu Ghayda requested the death penalty for French national Fayez Boushran, Saudi Abdel-Rahman Naser al-Shenefi, and three Lebanese nationals identified as Alaa Kanaan, Ayman Kanaan and Mahmoud Khaled.
The judge also sought a sentence of 15 years in prison with hard labor for two other Lebanese nationals.
The men, all of whom have been detained, were part of a 10-member group, known as “the hotels cell,” and were affiliated with ISIS. Their aim was to carry out suicide attacks in Beirut and its southern suburbs in revenge for “Hezbollah’s alleged killing of Sunnis in Syria,” a judicial source told The Daily Star.
The plot was broken up in a series of raids last June.
In the indictment, Abu Ghayda said the cell had had three separate tasks. The first was assigned to the Frenchman, who had joined ISIS’ ranks to carry out jihad against Shiites “to teach them a lesson for fighting in Syria.”
The Frenchman was chosen to carry out a suicide attack in Beirut. Upon his arrival in Lebanon, Boushran met with Munzer al-Hasan, who recruited suicide bombers. Hasan was killed during an Army raid to arrest him weeks after the arrest of the French national.
Hasan transported Boushran to the Napoleon Hotel in the Beirut neighborhood of Hamra and gave him pocket money. Boushran was instructed to remain at the hotel until someone contacted him about the target of the attack, which was to take place in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Shiite-dominated area.
Boushran was arrested at the hotel on June 20 during a raid by the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch.
The second task was assigned to two Saudi men including Shenefi, who was wounded when his partner, Ali al-Thuwayne, blew himself up on June 25 during a General Security raid on the Duroy Hotel, in the Beirut neighborhood of Raouche, where they were staying.
Shenefi and Thuwayne had planned to blow themselves up at the Al-Saha restaurant in the capital’s southern suburbs. One of the men was supposed to carry out the first suicide attack during a World Cup match, while hundreds were gathered to watch. Seconds later, the other was to blow himself up as people rushed to help the wounded, to kill as many victims as possible.
The Saudi men also met Hasan upon their arrival to Lebanon, and the recruiter showed them the location of the restaurant on their way from the airport to their hotel.
The third mission was assigned to Hasan’s group, which prepared explosive belts and bombs for the would-be suicide bombers.
The men were transferred to the Military Tribunal for trial.
Abu Ghayda cleared seven people because of a lack of evidence.
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