The Syrian judiciary has
issued arrest warrants for Lebanese figures "on charges of backing and
financing armed groups," Sky News Arabia reported on Monday.
Earlier in the day,
Damascus' First Attorney-General Mohammed Marwan al-Loji said in an interview
with al-Manar television that “the Syrian judicial authorities are preparing
arrest warrants for several Lebanese political figures, including lawmakers, on
charges of providing all sorts of support to the armed terrorist groups in
Syria, such as the trafficking of weapons and gunmen.”
Loji declined to mention
any names but al-Manar quoted Syrian sources as saying that several Mustaqbal
officials and MPs were involved, including ex-PM Saad Hariri and MPs Khaled
al-Daher and Oqab Saqr.
The sources also said
arrest warrants might be issued for Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid
Jumblat and Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea.
On August 11, the
Lebanese government’s deputy commissioner to the Military Court Judge Sami
Sader charged ex-Information Minister Michel Samaha and Syrian security chief
Maj. Gen. Ali Mamlouk with forming a group to commit crimes in Lebanon.
The two were also
charged with plotting to assassinate political and religious figures.
A judicial source told
Agence France Presse that General Mamlouk is "suspected of forming a group
to provoke sectarian killings and terrorist acts using explosives, which were
transported and stored by Samaha.”
An arrest warrant was
issued against Samaha after alleged evidence, including video footage, proved
his involvement in the plot.
According to Voice of
Lebanon (100.5) the indictment also includes a Syrian Colonel known as Brig.
Gen. Adnan.
VDL reported that if the
charges were proven then the culprits might be sentenced to hard labor or
death.
According to media
reports, Samaha was arrested after a man from the Kfoury family informed the
Internal Security Forces that the former minister had asked to provide him with
a group of men to transport explosives to northern Lebanon in return for a sum
of money.
After receiving the tip,
Kfoury was handed a spy pen camera that exposed Samaha in the weeks before his
arrest.
The bomb attacks were
reportedly to take place during Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi’s visit to
the northern district of Akkar and to target Iftar banquets attended by
important personalities, including Syrian opposition members.
The main objective was
to create Sunni-Alawite and Sunni-Christian strife, the reports said.
Al-Joumhouria newspaper has
quoted Samaha as telling interrogators that he transported the explosives upon
orders from President Bashar Assad.http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/50684
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