The
army intelligence bureau has arrested another Lebanese
Journalist on a charge of involvement in Lebanese Forces
Toufic Hindi's alleged contacts with Israel to agitate
against Syria's dominance in Lebanon.
Milhem Karam, chairman of the Journalist Association,
announced that he had been told by the Army's intelligence
service that Journalist Habib Younis was seized as he
was preparing to board a Cyprus-Bound jetliner Saturday
evening.
Habib,
of the London-based Al Hayat newspaper, was about
to leave for a meeting in the east Mediterranean island
with Oded Zarai, the media advisor to Israel's Lebanon
coordinator Uri Lubrani, the army intelligence told
Karam.
Al
Hayat denied the army's charge against Habib, saying
he was assigned to man the Beirut offices of the newspaper
through the weekend.
Hindi,
political advisor to jailed LF leader Samir Geagea,
has been accused of having seen Zarai many times in
Paris since March, prior to a Hindi face-to-face subsequent
meeting with Lubrani in Cyprus.
Intelligence
sources have revealed that Zarai was an Iraqi Jew
named Karam Zaarour. He had lived in Lebanon and worked
for the now defunct Phalange Party newspaper Al Amal
in 1983 and 1984, when Israel's invading army was
still in Lebanon.
Younis
is the second journalist to be arrested in connection
with Hindi's alleged contacts with the Israelis, a
charge punishable by life imprisonment under existing
Lebanese laws.
The
first was Antoine Bassil, the Lebanon corresponded
of the also London-based television network MBC
Prosecutor-General
Adnan Addoum on Saturday questioned two other LF officials
as witnesses in the Hindi case: Salman Samaha and
Elie Keyrouz. They were said to have been aware of
Hindi's contact with the Israelis.
Both
were returned to Roumieh prison after the questioning
session. They are slated for indictment by a military
examining magistrate currently interrogating Hindi
and Bassil, judicial sources said.
The
sources said Geagea's wife, Setrida Touk Geagea, was
unaware of Hindi's Israeli contacts and would not
consequently be summoned for questioning in his case.
