The personal bodyguard of former minister Wiam Wahhab has been charged by Judge Saq Saqr of the Lebanese military court with collaborating with Israel, including participating directly and indirectly in assassinations against Hezbollah fighters according to report on Thursday by al-Akhbar newspaper.
Judge saqr transferred the case to Investigating Judge Riad Abu Ghaida for further investigation .
The accused, Jalal A. D. from the village of Jahliyah east of the capital Beirut , was suspected by Hezbollah of working with Israel after noticing his suspicious behavior during Wahhab’s visits to party officials in Beirut’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold.
After monitoring his actions, their suspicions were confirmed and he was lured to the southern suburbs, in cooperation with Wahhab, where he was subject to an interrogation during which he confessed to collaborating with the Jewish state.
His residence in Jahliyah ( also Wahhab’s home town) was searched and advanced communications equipment that was provided by Israel was found.
Hezbollah handed Jalal over to the Lebanese army intelligence several days , which interrogated him further before handing him over to the military judiciary.
Wahhab had implied in one of his recent interviews that Israel had planted a spy among his bodyguards in order to gather information about Hezbollah officials.
Jalal confessed to have collaborated with Israel since 1994, revealing that he had traveled to the Jewish state a number of times where he underwent training.
He added that he had provided Israeli intelligence with the locations of Hezbollah and Lebanese army positions and centers, including the locations of a number of residences of Hezbollah officials.
He also participated in gathering information on Hezbollah military strategist Ali Hussein Saleh who was assassinated by Israeli intelligence in Beirut’s southern suburbs in August 2003.
The suspect may have also been involved in the 2006 assassination of members of the Islamic Jihad group, the brothers Mahmoud and Nidal al-Majzoub.
On Thursday, the Tawheed movement which is headed by Wahhab denied that the accused was Wahhab’s personal bodyguard, explaining that he is among Wahhab’s inner circle and took advantage of his position .
The movement also clarified that it fully cooperated with Hezbollah on this issue right from the beginning and it was the one that searched Jalal’s residence and found the spying equipment.
Like General Michel Aoun , Wahhab is a close ally of Hezbollah
Last August Aoun found himself in the same situation as Wahhab when FPM official, retired Col. Fayez Karam was arrested over spying for Israel.
MTV quoted an FPM source last September as saying: “
Karam confessed that he had visited Aoun’s resident in Rabiyeh during the July war, telling him: General, you know about my relation with an officer in Israel’s intelligence services, who nowadays became a diplomat in London, so what do you say if I suggest to him that you become the mediator between them (Israel) and Hezbollah in order to end the war and then you’d play the heroic role before everybody?” In reference to the July 2006 war.
Lebanon’s military tribunal set a new court date of July 28 for trying Karam’s case, following Tuesday’s hearing which was attended by Free Patriotic Movement MPs.
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