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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Lebanese parliament votes to release Christian leader |
| 2005-07-18 |
| BEIRUT - The Lebanese parliament voted on Monday for an amnesty bill paving the way for the release of Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea after 11 years imprisonment. The strong alliance between the LF, the Future Current Movement of late prime minister Rafik Hariri and the Democratic Gathering of Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, which hold the majority of seats in the 128-member parliament, led to the agreement by most of the countryâs political factions on the release of Geagea. According to initial reports, some 100 deputies voted for his release. Geagea, the only Lebanese warlord to be jailed, was sentenced to life imprisonment in part for his role in the assassination of former prime minister Rashid Karameh and Christian rival Dany Chamoun. He was jailed after being accused of carrying out a 1994 church bombing that killed 11 people in north Beirut. He was found not guilty of the attack but remained in jail after being sentenced to death for other cases, including the assassination of premier Karami in 1987 and other Christian leaders such as Chamoun. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison, but Amnesty International for one has accused the Lebanese authorities of mistreating him in his isolated defence ministry prison cell. Lawyer and civil rights activists Ziad Baroud said releasing Geagea was necessary to ensure national reconciliation and in accordance with the impartiality of the 1990 amnesty law linked to the crimes of the civil war. Geagea, 53, a Christian Maronite who hails from the town of Becharre in northern Lebanon, headed the Christian Lebanese Christian Force in 1985 after he overthrew former LF leader Elie Hobeika, who was assassinated in 2003 in a car bomb blast. The LF was founded in 1978 by then president Bashir Gemayel, who was assassinated by a pro-Syrian militant in a bomb blast at his office in 1982. Gerges Khoury, a Lebanese Forces militant and Geageaâs right-hand man who surrendered himself to Interior Security Forces in March 1994, is also expected to benefit from the amnesty law. Geagea will be released after the amnesty bill is signed by pro-Syrian Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and is published in the Lebanese press. Sources close to Geagea told DPA that after his release he will leave the country immediately. âHe will head from his jail to an undisclosed destination,â the sources said. The amnesty bill also includes detainees from Majdel al Anjar and Dinniyeh. The Dinniyeh detainees were arrested in 2000 after clashes with the Lebanese army during which 12 Lebanese army personnel were killed, including an officer. The clashes were between the army and a Sunni fundamentalist group with suspected links to Osama bin Ladenâs Al Qaeda group. The Majdel al Anjar detainees were arrested by the Lebanese army in 2004 for having suspected links with Arab militants travelling to Iraq. |
| Posted by:Steve |