Lebanon's press court fined Al Moustaqbal journalist Zahi Wehbe Thursday for libeling President Emile Lahoud, judicial sources said.

Al-Moustaqbal daily director Toufic Khattab and Wehbe were fined 50 million Lebanese pounds (more than 33,000 dollars) each for having "libeled and damaged the reputation of President Lahoud" in a 2005 article, the sources said.

The paper is owned by the family of slain ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a February 2005 bombing widely blamed on Syria and its local allies.

The offending article headlined: "His Excellency the Murderer," was published in June 2005 a few days after the murder of An Nahar's columnist Samir Kassir.

Wehbe's lawyer, Fouad Shbaklo, argued that the headline could not be taken as a reference to the president as an official decree had long since forbidden the use of such terms of honor for the head of state.

The legitimacy of Lahoud's presidency has been challenged by anti-Syrian politicians ever since it was extended by three years through a controversial Damascus-inspired constitutional amendment in 2004.

Source: Naharnet