Ex-Lebanese minister Michel Samaha sentenced for Syria-linked terror plot

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samaha michelA former Lebanese minister who was arrested three years ago for smuggling explosives into Lebanon from Syria was sentenced on Wednesday to four and a half years in prison for forming a group to carry out terrorist attacks.

Samaha was tried by a military court on charges related to a plot allegedly devised with Syria’s security chief, Ali Malmuk. Samaha confessed to the charges last month and gave details of the plans.

Samaha, who is close to the Syrian government, has been in detention since August 2012.

Lebanese Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi said the sentence was a travesty of justice. Samaha deserving a tougher sentence for his alleged role in undermining Lebanon’s security, he said.

“This is a black day in the history of this court … what happened in the case is a disgrace, and we will do everything to amend the ruling,” Rifi said in a statement.

The arrest of Samaha in a case that has also produced indictments against two Syrian officials, one a top general, marks a major break with the past. Such action against Damascus or its Lebanese allies once was unthinkable.

The case captivated a Lebanese public accustomed to seeing political violence go unpunished. It is another example of how turmoil in Syria is rippling through a country where Damascus has played a major role for decades and whose future will be shaped by the outcome of the civil war next door.
REUTERS

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15 responses to “Ex-Lebanese minister Michel Samaha sentenced for Syria-linked terror plot”

  1. MekensehParty Avatar
    MekensehParty

    All hail the Lebanese Justice System!

    1. Andari Avatar

      I actually consider it a failure to the Lebanese Justice System, as does the Justice minister.

      Everyone knows a terrorist like Samaha should have gotten more than four and a half years. There may be investigations into the judicial process so hopefully the court rethinks Samaha’s sentence.

      1. Mek was being sarcastic

      2. MekensehParty Avatar
        MekensehParty

        I was being sarcastic ๐Ÿ˜‰

  2. Fauzia45 Avatar
    Fauzia45

    Justice is difficult in the presence of armed militias!!

  3. Send the ugly prick to gitmo along with all the other Iranian whore

  4. I predict a huge backlash from this insane sentence. This is certainly one way to push the moderates to taking matters into their own hands. Dumb, just dumb! The judge must be related to hind aka whistleblower

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      You were doing ok … up to the last ‘dumb’. Then you blew it again.
      Here’s a site to visit .. might help.
      For Women and โ€ฆ
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      1. Did your sensibilities get offended again? Tell someone who cares coz frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn

      2. Pimping much you old disgusting shite pimp of Qom shite tranny hind aka whistleblower aka carribean?!?!
        You are the master hypocrite of all shite hypocrites on here.
        Who cares about what you say anyways? May be you are better of talking to your other shites and hypocrites.

  5. Hannibal Avatar
    Hannibal

    I disagree with many posters here regarding Samaha’s sentence… He is truly a “dead man walking” whatever he does. Think about it… When he got captured he said this is what Bashar wanted. If he were to say no he would have been executed like Rustum Ghazali. You can chop off as many stooges as possible and the snake will recover. You need to chop off the head of the snake. The hyena himself.

    1. 5thDrawer Avatar
      5thDrawer

      Well, as it says, “Such action against ….. once was unthinkable.”
      In a way, a Quantum Leap, even if a ridiculously ‘light’ sentence for what those bombs could have done … and certainly in light of what others HAVE done … when weaponry flowed feely. It’s a ‘bomb-shell’ case, tried actually IN Lebanon. They couldn’t do that with the Hariri case which killed 22 and wounded 200 … not counting upsetting a population that was just beginning to feel it was ‘coming together’ as Beirut was being rebuilt.
      Perhaps some of the Insanity is beginning to be seen, AND addressed … finally.
      And you are right … apparently there was a ‘plot’ before it got to trial … how long he lives is an unknown.

  6. In Mexico, killed two more candidates in the elections of local authorities

  7. Scientists have found equality of the sexes in primitive society http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/may/14/early-men-women-equal-scientists

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