Military Prosecutor Judge Saqr Saqr filed an appeal Monday against what was viewed as a lenient jail sentence handed down to former Minister Michel Samaha last week, demanding a tougher penalty, judicial sources told The Daily Star.
The appeal, submitted to the Military Court of Cassation, challenges the Military Tribunal’s four-and-a-half-year jail sentence issued against Samaha over smuggling explosives from Syria into Lebanon with the intent to target political and religious figures.
Saqr and Assistant Prosecutor Judge Hani Hajjar urged the Court of Cassation to nullify the sentence and retry Samaha on all charges brought against him in the initial indictment which demanded the death penalty.
The prosecutors also urged the court to display video and audio recordings showing Samaha handing over explosives and money to Milad Kfoury – an undercover Internal Security Forces agent.
A judicial source told The Daily Star that the appeal’s memo is 14 pages long and asserts that Samaha is guilty of charges that should be met with a tougher penalty.
It also states that the Military Tribunal sentenced Samaha for “attempts” to carry out terrorist acts, when in fact, the crimes Samaha committed go beyond that.
The appeal argued that since Samaha met with Kfoury on several occasions, planned the operations, agreed on the targets and handed the explosives and a sum of money over to the agent, then his role in the plot was complete.
Considering that, Samaha should be found guilty of carrying out terrorist operations and not merely an attempt to do so, it said.
The appeal also challenged the court’s verdict, which found the suspect not guilty of attempted murder.
The appeal said that Samaha had made all preparations in an attempt to assassinate religious and political figures. The killings did not occur, however, because of circumstances beyond the suspect’s control and not because of the lack of criminal intent.
The Court of Cassation will have 15 days to review the appeal before issuing a decision.
If it accepts the appeal, then the court must retry Samaha and should issue a new verdict within two months of approving the challenge to the original sentence.
If the appeal is rejected, then Samaha will serve out his four-and-a-half-year-sentence.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said he was preparing a proposal to refer the case of Samaha to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, or the International Criminal Court due to similarities in the types of explosives carried by Samaha and those used to assassinate Lebanese political figures.
In an interview with Future TV, Rifi said the decision came as a result of an existing “link between the explosives carried by Samaha from Syria to Lebanon,” and those used to assassinate George Hawi, the former head of the Lebanese Communist Party, and journalist Samir Kassir.
“The 20 little explosives that were seized from Michel Samaha weigh between 1 and 1.5 kilos ... and are equipped with a magnetic clip,” he said.
“We have uncovered these kinds of explosives in the assassinations of Hawi and Kassir, as well the attempted assassination of [journalist] May Chidiac.”
The STL or the ICC, Rifi said, could compare the residues of the magnetic clips that were used in the three mentioned cases with the magnetic clips seized from Samaha.
Rifi, who had denounced the lenient jail sentence against Samaha, described the Military Tribunal’s verdict as “a recipe for strife.”
The appeal, submitted to the Military Court of Cassation, challenges the Military Tribunal’s four-and-a-half-year jail sentence issued against Samaha over smuggling explosives from Syria into Lebanon with the intent to target political and religious figures.
Saqr and Assistant Prosecutor Judge Hani Hajjar urged the Court of Cassation to nullify the sentence and retry Samaha on all charges brought against him in the initial indictment which demanded the death penalty.
The prosecutors also urged the court to display video and audio recordings showing Samaha handing over explosives and money to Milad Kfoury – an undercover Internal Security Forces agent.
A judicial source told The Daily Star that the appeal’s memo is 14 pages long and asserts that Samaha is guilty of charges that should be met with a tougher penalty.
It also states that the Military Tribunal sentenced Samaha for “attempts” to carry out terrorist acts, when in fact, the crimes Samaha committed go beyond that.
The appeal argued that since Samaha met with Kfoury on several occasions, planned the operations, agreed on the targets and handed the explosives and a sum of money over to the agent, then his role in the plot was complete.
Considering that, Samaha should be found guilty of carrying out terrorist operations and not merely an attempt to do so, it said.
The appeal also challenged the court’s verdict, which found the suspect not guilty of attempted murder.
The appeal said that Samaha had made all preparations in an attempt to assassinate religious and political figures. The killings did not occur, however, because of circumstances beyond the suspect’s control and not because of the lack of criminal intent.
The Court of Cassation will have 15 days to review the appeal before issuing a decision.
If it accepts the appeal, then the court must retry Samaha and should issue a new verdict within two months of approving the challenge to the original sentence.
If the appeal is rejected, then Samaha will serve out his four-and-a-half-year-sentence.
Meanwhile, Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said he was preparing a proposal to refer the case of Samaha to the U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Lebanon, or the International Criminal Court due to similarities in the types of explosives carried by Samaha and those used to assassinate Lebanese political figures.
In an interview with Future TV, Rifi said the decision came as a result of an existing “link between the explosives carried by Samaha from Syria to Lebanon,” and those used to assassinate George Hawi, the former head of the Lebanese Communist Party, and journalist Samir Kassir.
“The 20 little explosives that were seized from Michel Samaha weigh between 1 and 1.5 kilos ... and are equipped with a magnetic clip,” he said.
“We have uncovered these kinds of explosives in the assassinations of Hawi and Kassir, as well the attempted assassination of [journalist] May Chidiac.”
The STL or the ICC, Rifi said, could compare the residues of the magnetic clips that were used in the three mentioned cases with the magnetic clips seized from Samaha.
Rifi, who had denounced the lenient jail sentence against Samaha, described the Military Tribunal’s verdict as “a recipe for strife.”
The Daily Star
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