Daily Star - Karam release stirs more angry reaction among Islamists’ relatives, April 06, 2012

TRIPOLI, Lebanon: The families of some 40 Islamists being held in Roumieh prison objected Thursday to the release of Free Patriotic Movement official Fayez Karam, convicted of contacting Israel, as their relatives remain imprisoned without trial.

During a news conference at the office of Hizb Ut-Tahrir in Tripoli, families of Islamist inmates denounced the release of Karam, who was convicted last year on charges of contacting Israelis and providing Mossad with information on the FPM and Hezbollah.

“There has been no fairness at all in dealing with collaborators [with Israel] and the Islamist prisoners and all other inmates,” said Ahmad Qasas of Hizb Ut-Tahrir.

Dozens of Islamists were detained following the three-month battle between the Lebanese Army and Fatah al-Islam militants at the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in 2007.

According to Qasas, all detained Islamists have been kept in Roumieh prison since then on charges of contacting militants in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Qasas said that none of them has faced trial.

Karam was arrested in 2010 and sentenced to two years in prison for providing Israeli intelligence with information on Hezbollah and the FPM. He was released Tuesday after spending one year and eight months behind bars, benefiting from a new law that reduces the prison year from 12 to nine months.

“The collaborator Karam was accused of spying for the enemy, but the detained Islamists have been treated as criminals for contacting by telephone people in Afghanistan and Iraq who were fighting against foreign occupation,” said Qasas.

While Karam received a swift trial and sentencing, the Islamist prisoners have spent years in prison without even making it to the trial stage, Qasas added.

“Parliament’s decision to reduce the prison year sentence to nine months has benefited Fayez Karam and other criminals, but has not addressed all those who are being arbitrarily detained,” Qasas added.

Separately, former Prime Minister Salim Hoss criticized the fact that Karam benefited from the sentence reduction law.

“We had hoped that the reduction of the prison year would not apply in the case of collaboration with the enemy,” Hoss said in reference to Karam’s release. “We condemn any kind of collaboration with the Zionist enemy and we consider it an act of national treason,” he said in a statement.

Future Movement lawmakers have criticized Karam’s release, lashing out at Hezbollah for not commenting on the release of the FPM official.

Karam has strenuously maintained his innocence, and has vowed to discuss his case at a later date.