Geagea: State Must be Positive With Sunnis to Prevent ISIL from Infiltrating Lebanon
Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea stated on Saturday that the state must behave well with the Sunni community in order to prevent any attempts on their part to engage in the ranks of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
“In order for the state to prevent Daesh from entering Lebanon, it must behave well with the Sunni community to prevent them from joining the ranks of Daesh,” said Geagea after meeting a public delegation from the region of Batroun.
“The Assad-Mamluk-Samaha conspiracy was uncovered lately and it aimed to bomb Sunni neighborhoods in Tripoli and Akkar,” he said, adding that “ the soft verdict of four-and-a-half years' jail term against Samaha could push some Sunnis to extremist organizations and join the ranks of Daesh.”
Geagea stressed the necessity to prevent any attempts to infiltrate Lebanon's border, in reference to the clashes taking place in Syria's al-Qalamoun which runs close to Lebanon's northeastern border town of Arsal.
The military court set a July 16 date for ex-minister Michel Samaha's retrial after it accepted an appeal filed by State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr, who argued that the four-and-a-half years' jail term was too lenient in light of the offenses that Samaha was convicted of.
The verdict had sparked a storm of criticism from al-Mustaqbal movement, the March 14 forces and civil society activists, who slammed the ruling as too light.
The trial had been postponed multiple times because of the absence of 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.
D.A.
H.K.
06 June 2015, 14:01
86
A sunni goes to fight in Syria, he is arrested as a terrorist and tried by the military court of course after confessing as usual. Thousands of Shia fight in Syria and commit massacres but they are hailed as heroes by army intelligence and decorated. Geagea is spot on. The military institution and the security agencies must deal with and apply the law equally.
06 June 2015, 14:03
00
ya hakim all the communities and sects should behave well with their state not the way around the state should treat all equally
god bless democracy
06 June 2015, 14:12
00
as the late american president kennedy said :
ask not what your country can do for you but rather what you can do to your country
MR geagea the state does not have to look to their citizens as sunni or chia,.... state must take care of all communities as equal and as lebanese
btw the richest in lebanon i.e. billionaires are sunni
and the best way for equality between lebanese is a secular democracy
06 June 2015, 14:22
66
lebanese are stupid people... they still follow those who led Lebanon into chaos (geagea aoun hezbollah amal wahhab frangieh gemayel jumblatt karameh...) and seem too idiot to have learned anything from its history... tfeh.
pity this nation of fools and fooled people...
06 June 2015, 15:38
54
It is the only antidote to the contagion of sectarianism and sectarian conflict that is sweeping the region. It is the only thing that has spared Lebanon thus far. It is civil society. In civil society the rule of law is supreme and everyone's rights are protected and guaranteed regardless of their sectarian affiliations.
The slow erosion of the State that is being accomplished at the hands of Hezbollah is the creation of special privileges for one sect over the other, the Shia sect. This breeds resentment among the others so that if it appears that the system is established to prefer an identifiable group other than your own, then you opt out of that system.
06 June 2015, 15:41
55
This is what Geagea warns of when he cites crimes committed by those considered allies of the Hezbollah who receive light punishment, but when the same offense is committed by an adversary of the Hezbollah, the full weight of the law falls on them.
Hezbollah is engaged full bore in cross border warfare against the Sunni in Syria. Should Mustaqbel do the same, then they are condemned as tikfiri to be hunted, arrested and condemned as enemies of the State.
I do not argue that those Sunni who do assist the Diaish should not be punished, but that the Hezbollah should face the same punishment for its activities in Syria. Two wrongs do not make a right. But if cross border participation in the war is wrong for the Sunni, and it is, then it must be so considered for the Shia, for one has no greater rights than the other in a civil society.
06 June 2015, 15:44
55
A civil society, one that it integrated with Sunni, Shia and Christian living in all parts of the country, interacting in non-governmental civic activities, in business and charities this makes for civil society.
Self segregation into homogenous enclaves where there is no cross-confessional interaction, as is the case in Dayhe, this leads to the breakdown in civil society and the rise of sectarian society which is ripe for sectarian conflict. This is the only danger to Lebanon. And only the Lebanese can save themselves from it.
