Reports: Yaacoub Chamoun is a Syrian National Who Collaborated with Israel
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.
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