Court Accepts Saqr's Appeal of Samaha Verdict, Says Retrial to Begin July 16

The military court of appeals on Tuesday accepted an appeal filed by State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr against the jail sentence that was handed to former minister Michel Samaha, state-run National News Agency reported.

“The court accepted the appeal in form and content after discussing all the arguments mentioned in it,” NNA said.

“It decided to keep Samaha's case separate from that of (Syrian security chief) Maj. Gen. Ali Mamluk,” it added.

Saqr's appeal had demanded Samaha's retrial and that the verdict be annulled. The retrial would refer to videos of the former minister during which he discusses the transportation of explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon.

The court also rejected an appeal filed by Samaha's lawyer Sakhr al-Hashem, who had demanded the acquittal of his client.

Hashem argued that Samaha fell into a trap set up by “agent provocateur” Milad Kfoury, an informant who collaborated with the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch to unveil the ex-minister's plot.

The military court of appeals set a July 16 date for Samaha's retrial, NNA said.

Last month, Samaha was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail over terrorism charges. Arrested in August 2012, the ex-minister would be released at the end of this year taking into account time served and because the judicial year amounts to nine months in Lebanon.

The verdict sparked a storm of criticism from al-Mustaqbal movement, the March 14 forces and civil society activists, who slammed the ruling as too soft given the charges that Samaha was convicted of.

He was found guilty of "having tried to carry out terrorist actions and for belonging to an armed group" and was also stripped of his civic and political rights.

In the wake of the controversial verdict, several TV networks aired videos showing Samaha handing ISF informant Kfouri explosives and fuses he had transported in his car from Syria with the aim of staging bombings and assassinating Lebanese officials and religious figures at Mamluk's behest.

Samaha's lawyer Rana Azoury said the ex-minister, who was once an adviser to Syria's President Bashar Assad, explained during an April 20 trial session that he had been "harassed" for four months by Kfouri to transport the explosives to be used in blasts on the Lebanese border.

Samaha's trial had been postponed multiple times because of the absence of Ali Mamluk, who remains in Syria, but after a judge separated the cases against the two men, a first trial session began on April 20.

The Lebanese judiciary has issued an arrest warrant for Mamluk and sent Syria a formal notification of the warrant and charges, but received no response.

Y.R.