Surprise mixed with fear after a TV broadcast announced that the Court of Justice had acquitted Dr. Samir Geagea of the bomb attack against the Church of Our Lady of Deliverance at Zouk on February 27, 1994. "Geagea is innocent!" The news had the effect of a summer tempest in the "Doctor’s" house. Dozens of people that waited the verdict along with his wife couldn't believe what they'd just heard. Everybody was sure the former leader of the Lebanese Forces was innocent, but they had all expected the worse...

Sitt Sethrida couldn't hold back her tears of joy; and, after the shock of the surprise, she addressed the people: "My friends, the earth can tremble, but it does not fall. May what happed this morning open the way to an action that will make the truth shine out and reopen all the files filled with an overwhelming evidence against the people who have not been disturbed until now..." After her husband was arrested one day in April 1994, prosecuted for charges of blowing up the church and trying to overthrow the regime, Mme. Geagea used diplomacy as well as intelligence, advised by experienced lawyers and Geagea's old companions. All the while she continued to welcome the doctor's partisans and friends; she had never lost hope of seeing truth restored, drawing strength from her prayers, her face turned to the shrine of the Virgin near her home in the region of "Christ the King" (Yasoo3 el Malek). Early that morning, her cell phone didn't stop ringing -- close friends and members of the Bar trying to reassure her of the result of a process that had taken more than two years.

Invited to comment the judgment that acquitted her husband, Mrs. Geagea apologized for not being able to say anything, but in an emotive address, appealed to the president, "guardian of the constitution and the law", as well as to all the people responsible, asking to ameliorate the doctor's condition in prison at the Ministry of Defense in Yarze where he is kept in a poorly ventilated cell lacking any sunlight. "I hope this judgment will turn a new page and make truth prevail in Lebanon", said Sethrida, adding that "If I could hold on until now, it was because I've never doubted my husband's innocence". But although she's happy with the decision of the court, Mrs. Geagea still feels a little bitter: her husband demanded absolution for his companions and did his own defense, as the lawyers had renounced their duty in protest against the conditions under which the affair was proceeding. He was proved innocent, whereas certain LF members were condemned to harsh sentences, some of which by default.

This saddens Sitt Sethrida, who recalls a passage of the request presented by her husband at the Court of Justice to take up his own defense: "I'd rather pass a long time in hell for an unfair condemnation than live a moment in paradise having committed an injustice".



Taken from RDL
Translated by Youssef Cherem