Naharnet

Saqr Requests Questioning of Syrian Officials, Testimony of Shaaban in Samaha Case

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr completed on Monday his assessment of the case of former Minister Michel Samaha, requesting that the investigation expand to include the questioning of Syrian officials, reported the National News Agency.

Saqr requested the questioning of Syrian security chief Ali Mamlouk and a colonel identified only as Adnan as suspects in the case.

He also asked that Buthaina Shaaban, Syrian President Bashar Assad's media adviser, be questioned as a witness.

Saqr has since referred his assessment to First Military Investigation Judge Riyad Abu Ghida.

Commenting on Saqr's order, Samaha's lawyer Sakhr al-Hashem said that judicial rules agreed upon by Lebanon and Syria need to be implemented in order to meet his demand.

“No judicial rulings against wanted individuals can be issued without informing these people in person first,” he explained.

Should they fail to head to Lebanon for the hearing, then they should be informed through their country's justice or foreign ministries or the Higher Lebanese-Syrian Council, he added.

“The case was taking its normal course before Saqr's assessment,” Hashem noted.

Samaha was arrested in August on charges of forming a criminal gang aimed at carrying out attacks in Lebanon at Syria's behest.

Mamlouk and Syrian colonel Adnan have been also charged in the affair.

Mamlouk is suspected of forming a group to provoke sectarian killings and terrorist acts using explosives, which were transported and stored by Samaha.

Media reports had said in October that Shaaban may also be linked to the case.

Sources told MTV at the time that Shaaban and Samaha had held a telephone conversation while the latter was allegedly in Damascus to transfer explosives from Syria to Lebanon.


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