LebaneseForces.com: Fighting for Freedom

Geagea asks reason for continued imprisonment

Samir Geagea, the imprisoned leader of disbanded Lebanese Forces, asked a delegation of visiting MPs why he was not included in a general pardon in 1991 and was still imprisoned.

Members of Parliament's human rights committee visited Geagea in his prison cell for the first time on Saturday and said he is being treated well and is in good health.

But the imprisoned leader questioned why he had not been included in the General Pardon Law of 1991.

Geagea allegedly told his visitors that he was not as concerned about his jail conditions as much as he cared to know why he still remains in jail.

"I don't belong here," Geagea allegedly said. "I went all the way with the national consensus and delivered all of my weapons when many others didn't.

"Why was I excluded from the pardon?"

Ghassan Mokheiber, Neamatallah Abi Nasr and Atef Majdalani - visited Geagea at his prison at the Defense Ministry. They denied rumors that their visit came in response to Amnesty International's latest declaration that the government forbids human rights activists from visiting the prison and that detainees are tortured there.

An Amnesty report claimed Geagea was convicted in an unfair trial and that he is being held in degrading conditions.

Lebanon has vehemently denied Amnesty's charges.

According to the committee, the visit to see Geagea was planned four months ago.

"Geagea is slim, but he had a firm grip when we shook hands," Mokheiber said.

Abi Nasr said that Geagea was in good health.

Committee member Abi Nasr said that Geagea was moved to a newly-built room four months ago that has sunlight, unlike the underground cell Geagea says he spent the previous 10 years in.

"Geagea's room has heating and is subjected to sunlight and has everything needed in it," said Abi Nasr. "He is allowed to read and has lots of books but he is banned from reading newspapers or watching television."

According to legal expert Edmond Naim, the General Pardon Law was "unjust as it breaches the state's fundamental rules of equality.

"Either all of the heads of all militias during the Lebanese civil war should be delivered to justice or else all of them should be pardoned - and that includes Geagea."

Naim told The Daily Star in a telephone interview Sunday that the pardon covered all crimes committed during the war, "even crimes committed for political reasons."

As for Geagea, he also questioned why the president has not yet issued a special private pardon for him - despite the fact that "all of the criteria needed for such a pardon are available."

Abi Nasr referred the answer to the president, telling the media, "You have to ask the president about this."

By law, a presidential pardon needs the signatures of "the president, the premiere and the justice minister," said Naim.

The committee also visited LF group member Jirjis al-Khoury. Geagea and al-Khoury are serving life sentences in solitary confinement on charges of killing political opponents.

Taken from the DailyStar

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, November 29, 2004 | Permalink

Geagea 'Wonders' Why Lahoud Isn't Issuing a Pardon

Samir Geagea has expressed bewilderment about the prolonged delay of a special parole to end his ongoing imprisonment since 10 years and three months at the Defense ministry jail in Yarze.

His complaint was disclosed by three legislators of parliament's Human Rights Committee, who visited him at his solitary confinement in the hilltop ministry compound east of Beirut on Saturday, An Nahar reported on Sunday.

"I am not requesting parole, but I am wondering why President Lahoud hasn't issued a special pardon decree since parliament has long been reluctant to vote on such a parole," Geagea was quoted as telling the committee by its spokesman Nimatallah Abi Nasr.

"My place is not here. I have accepted the national reconciliation" embodied in the 1989 Taif accord that halted Lebanon's 15-year civil war, said Geagea, the commander of the Lebanese Forces Christian militia during the last five years of the sectarian conflict.

"I have joined the national reconciliation bid and I wonder why haven't I been covered by the post-war general amnesty. I don't know why parliament has been so late in issuing a pardon ," Abi Nasr quoted Geagea as saying, according to An Nahar.

"Why don't you request a parole?" Geagea was asked by committee visitors, who included Legislators Atef Majdalani and Ghassan Mokhaiber in addition to Abi Nasr.

"I do not request, but I wonder why the president of the republic hasn't issued a special pardon on his own," Geagea was quoted by Abi Nasr as responding. "I want to stress that I am not requesting, but merely wondering.. As a matter of principle, I won't budge even if I stay 10 or 20 more years in jail."

Abi Nasr said the ground-level room to which Geagea was recently moved up from a three-floor underground dungeon that had no light or window where he spent 10 years was decent, with plenty of light and a big library for Geagea to read, although the chamber has no television set and no newspapers or magazines are allowed.

As for the underground cell of another prisoner, Girgis Khoury, 36, who is held in connection with the bombing of Notre Dame de Deliverance Church north of Beirut in 1994, Abi Nasr spoke of appalling maltreatment.

"Khoury is held in a dungeon 130 centimeters wide with an adjoining bath 110 centimeters wide. It has no sunshine, electricity, or fresh air and Khoury sleeps on a mattress on the floor. Even his lawyer is banned from seeing him," Abi Nasr said.

The lawyer, George Najm, a pro-Hizbullah parliament member, has said that he requested a permit to visit his client in jail, but was told: "you are now a deputy in Parliament and consequently you are not his attorney," according to Abi Nasr, who spoke at a news conference in parliament after visiting Geagea.

Taken from Naharnet.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, November 29, 2004 | Permalink

Winners of the LAU Elections

Awedikian Zeina
Bahnam Rita
Bou Jawdeh Charbel
Hawat Ralph
Jabra Michelle
Zebian Fouad
Khadige Chadi
Kordahi Stephanie
Mhanna Wassim
Youssef Shallita

Posted by 40-Tactical on Saturday, November 27, 2004 | Permalink

Human Rights Committee Visits Geagea in Prison

Parliament's human rights committee has been allowed to visit Lebanese Forces Commander Samir Geagea for the first time at the defense ministry prison in Yarze, where he spent the past 10 years in solitary confinement.

The committee--made up of legislators Marwan Fares, Nimatallah Abi Nasr and Ghassan Mokhaiber plus secretary Mona Kamal--has been given permission to sea Geagea for two hours before noon Saturday, An Nahar and others reported Friday.

The permit was given by judge Rabia Ammash Kaddoura, who is acting for Justice Minister Adnan Addoum in his former capacity as state prosecutor, in a letter she addressed to committee chairman Marwan Fares, who has twice requested the visit.

An Nahar said the committee would hold a news conference in parliament at midday Saturday to speak about its findings.

Taken from Naharnet.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Friday, November 26, 2004 | Permalink

Amnesty International Seeks Geagea's Immediate Release

Human rights group Amnesty International has called for the release or retrial of Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea, contending he is jailed in degrading conditions and was convicted in an unfair trial.

Amnesty called on Lebanese authorities to immediately release Geagea and Jirjis al-Khoury, who are both serving life sentences in solitary confinement at the defense ministry jail in Yarze on charges of killing political opponents.

"Both men suffered serious violations and irregularities in pretrial detention" and are being held in "cruel, inhuman and degrading" conditions, Amnesty said in a statement released in London Tuesday.

"They are not allowed to communicate with other detainees, are denied access to newspapers, radio, TV and any literature of a political nature," said the report.

The rights group said al-Khoury told the judges at his trial that he confessed under torture, yet the confession was accepted as the main evidence against him.

Lebanon denied the allegations. In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the Lebanese Army said both men had regular visitors from their families and lawyers.

Geagea , who was arrested in 1994 when the government outlawed the LF, is serving four life terms totaling 120 years on charges of murder, attempting to rekindle the Lebanese civil war and partitioning Lebanon into sectarian mini-states.

Right-wing Christian politicians and Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir had stubbornly argued that the court verdicts were politically motivated because Geagea refused to join the pro-Syrian cabinets that were formed after the civil war guns fell silent in 1990.

Taken from Naharnet

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Read the New Amnesty International Report
Lebanon Samir Geagea and Jirjis al-Khouri: Torture and unfair trial
English Version
French Version
Arabic Version

Taken from Lebanese-Forces.org

Posted by 40-Tactical on Tuesday, November 23, 2004 | Permalink

Sony Ericsson Themes

You can now download LF Sony Ericsson themes from the Phone Logos section. There are three themes available at the bottom of the page. Nokia 6600 themes coming soon. Thank you Sarkis.

click here to see the themes

Posted by 40-Tactical on Sunday, November 07, 2004 | Permalink

Historical Fact: Arafat's Bank Robbery

Perhaps the PLO's biggest heist was the robbery, in early 1976, of the British Bank of the Middle East, which had its worldwide headquarters in Beirut. On January 20 members of Force 17, under the command of Ali Hassan Salameh, occupied the bank by blasting through an exterior wall it shared with the Catholic Capuchin Church. Two days later a team of Corsican locksmiths and safecrackers hired by the PLO arrived in Beirut and were taken immediately to the bank, where they began work to crack the main vault. On January 24 they accomplished their mission and for the next two days looted all the money and valuables in the vault and the safe-deposit boxes. The main vault contained thousands of gold bars and millions of dollars in Lebanese and foreign currencies, as well as stock certificates and other valuables. The safe-deposit boxes were also loaded with currency, gold, jewelry, and stock certificates. So great was the volume of material carried out of the bank that it had to be hauled away in trucks. The loot was divided up, with the PLO keeping two-thirds and the Corsicans receiving one-third.

Once the job was completed, a chartered DC-3 landed at Beirut International Airport, and the Corsicans flew away with $200 million in gold, jewelry, and currency. Sometime in mid-March another chartered aircraft, a Bristol Britannia Series 300 four-engine turboprop, arrived in Beirut and was met by gunmen from Force 17. Under their watchful eyes, three truckloads of loot, worth close to $400 million, were loaded aboard the Britannia. In the early-morning hours, after all the loot had been loaded on board. Arafat, Abu Iyad, and Salameh arrived, and the plane departed for Geneva. The three men returned two days later on the same aircraft, after presumably depositing their loot in numbered Swiss bank accounts. Other secret accounts were maintained in Lebanon (Beirut), Cyprus (Nicosia), Greece (Athens), and West Germany (Dusseldorf).

In the following months the PLO sold many of the stocks and bonds found in the bank vault back in their original owners for 20 or 30 cents on the dollar. In many cases Arab governments and top officials were only too eager to buy back their assets since they had been illegally obtained in the first place, and disclosure of the fact that they possessed such large sums of money or owned companies doing business with their own governments would have been very embarrassing. So successful was the "fire sale" that in October 1976 a second shipment of funds and other valuables, worth an estimated $250 million, was sent to Switzerland. Once again Abu Iyad and Salameh were on board the chartered aircraft.

More Historical Facts available here.

Posted by 40-Tactical on Friday, November 05, 2004 | Permalink

While You Wait

Until things get back to normal at my side you can keep up with the latest LF news and updates at the following sites:

www.Lebanese-Forces.org
www.Lebanese-Forces.ca

Posted by 40-Tactical on Monday, November 01, 2004 | Permalink