Reports: Yaacoub Chamoun is a Syrian National Who Collaborated with Israel
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
A man who received a hero’s welcome in Lebanon after spending 27 years in Syrian prisons is actually a “Syrian national,” media reports said on Tuesday.
“The Syrian embassy sent a cable to the Lebanese foreign ministry, noting that Yaacoub Chamoun is a Syrian national and that he was arrested for collaborating with Israel,” al-Manar television reported.
Chamoun, whose mother is Lebanese, hails from the Syrian district of al-Qamishli and was born in 1963, al-Manar said, adding that his family moved to Lebanon in 1972.
Chamoun then joined the Phalange Party and underwent military training, according to the TV network.
“He was arrested in 1985 on charges of joining a 40-day (military) training course in Israel and the Syrian judiciary sentenced him to life in jail for collaborating with the Israeli enemy,” al-Manar added.
For its part, the Lebanese Forces on Tuesday said that Chamoun was “one of the fighters who defended the free areas in Lebanon … and was not able to acquire the Lebanese nationality because he was detained in Syria.”
Chamoun’s return brought back to the spotlight the issue of the Lebanese who went missing during Lebanon’s 1975-90 Civil War.
Media reports said the man was arrested in the eastern city of Zahle and later moved to several Syrian prisons during his incarceration, including the notorious Mezze, Saydnaya and Tadmor prisons.
Chamoun was also placed in solitary confinement for four years. He was later transferred to a civilian prison and was able to secure his release by paying millions in cash through a powerful Syrian lawyer, media reported said.
The Assad regime has long denied holding any prisoners of conscience, but on four different occasions between 1976 and 2000 released Lebanese nationals who had been held in Syrian prisons.
The man confirmed to LBCI TV network that there are Lebanese political prisoners in Syrian jails and said he had encountered five of them but he refused to name them for fears that the revelation would do them harm.
The civil war claimed the lives of at least 150,000 people. For over 21 years, more than 600 families -- Lebanese and Palestinian -- have demanded authorities reveal the fate of the thousands believed to have disappeared at the hands of Syrian troops who entered Lebanon shortly after the outbreak of the war.
04 September 2012, 22:48
415
Whatever the case, as everyone knows the vastness of Syrian imagination, what right had the Syrians to kidnap him from Zahle until further notice a Lebanese town. It was interesting that the traitor coward Aoun jumped the gun and revealed the Syrian cable before they had.
04 September 2012, 22:59
116
Sayyed Hassan should negotiate with syria to help get the Lebanese prisonners out from their jails. And Saad should negotiate with FSA to get the 10 "pilgrims" out. And Hassan and Saad should sit and do a looong talk, do a new gouvernemnt and ykhalsouna ba2a.
04 September 2012, 23:54
143
Actually "the resistance" you are right this logic is nonsense... The right only way to become a true Lebanese patriot is to be trained in Iran, to get weapons from Syria, to spy for the Ayatollahs and to kill Rafic Hariri and other March 14th politicians... Oh I almost forgot, to hide the killers and threaten to start a war if someone dare look at your militia/weapons. I acually know what you are smoking, it is grown in the Bekaa and sold to the world to finance your militia/resistance...I will not laugh, because people like you make me cry !
05 September 2012, 00:47
152
Dude, what happened to your glasses color? The yellow color appears to be fading.... A portend of things to come we hope.
05 September 2012, 00:51
142
dude, u have a picture of an ape wearing glasses... that is so cool, now i believe in evolution.
05 September 2012, 01:09
143
If true, then Fayez Karam should feel fortunate he wasn't in a Syrian prison.
05 September 2012, 03:18
91
This guy should be awarded a medal for bravery and met by the President,Prime and Speaker of the House just like the other criminals released from Israeli jails.
05 September 2012, 03:23
144
Nothing wrong with being trained in Israel just as the Palestinian Sa3eka were trained in Syria on how to massacre the Damour town.
Who is to say that Training in Israel is evil meanwhile Iran trained the same robots who destroyed the entire Lebanese Infrastructure in 2006 by following their masters green light in Tehran?
05 September 2012, 07:26
132
so what if he is half syrian-half lebanese?dany mansourati is half lebanese-half syrian too.his mother is syrian origin.
05 September 2012, 08:45
112
Yaacoub Chamoun is more Lebanese the all the M8 leaders and most of their followers. HE fought for a Lebanese cause and was abducted from Lebanon.
He has seen LEBANESE prisoners in syrian jails and talked about it which made all the claims of M8 false and they had to run around trying to find a way to discredit him.
Stop the show and focus on the true stroy, what is goign to happen to the Lebanese left in the Syrian jails? who will fight for their freedom? For sure it will not be the traitor Mansour
05 September 2012, 17:51
10
Eh walla "Ahlen" ... When I mentioned discredit I did not mean to question what his passport says ... It can say Mozambique for all I care ... he fought for Lebanon and helped Lebanon.
As for yoru double standards, this guy was trained in Isreal 28 years ago when the country was at war and all leaders were in bed with Isreal either publicly or secretly. What is the excuse of those training in Iran now? who are we at war with? Isreal does not occupy Lebanon anymore, and if you refer to Shebaa farms then ask Syria to declare it is not Syrian land.
You are masters in double standards, so please go try this game somewhere else ... w Ahlen
05 September 2012, 09:16
81
@TheResistance,
If lebanese army caught a lebanese in SYRIA, then yes they should report it to the syrian authorities. This is the minimum.
The probleme with you guys is that you think that u r the only people who defended Lebanon ... well that's not true. The Lebanese Christian Resistance faught the syrian army (and the USA project of Kessinger) with much more bravoury as they were not well equiped as you guys. And saying that Israel is the sole enemy of Lebanon is not true. Like Israel (if not more), Syria wants to occupy Lebanon... and the brutality of Assad toward syrian civilians (his own people) is much more than israelis against palestinian civilians.
08 September 2012, 14:44
00
Al Manar TV talking about this guy as a spy ,Collaborating with Israel?.How about Fayez Karam ? :)
