Samaha Sentenced to 4.5 Years in Jail, Rifi Vows to 'Abolish' Military Court

The Military Court on Wednesday sentenced former minister Michel Samaha to four and a half years of hard labor and stripped him of his civil rights, state-run National News Agency reported.

Samaha had been charged with transporting explosives in his car from Syria into Lebanon with the aim of staging bombings and assassinating Lebanese officials and religious figures at the behest of Syrian security services chief Ali Mamluk.

The court said Samaha, arrested in August 2012, would be released at the end of this year taking into account time served and because the judicial year amounts to nine months in Lebanon.

He was found guilty of "having tried to carry out terrorist actions and for belonging to an armed group," it said.

Defense lawyer Rana Azoury, whose team argued that Samaha fell into a trap set by Lebanese intelligence services, said she would appeal against the ruling to the country's court of cassation.

Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi was quick to lash out at the court after the verdict fell short of his expectations.

“I announce to the Lebanese people the death of the Military Court and we will utilize all means to amend the law of military trials,” Rifi said.

“We won't be false witnesses on the disregard for Lebanese security,” he added.

Slamming the verdict against Samaha as “shameful,” the minister vowed to exert efforts to “abolish” the Military Court.

“We will not remain silent … because martyrs had fallen in the face of this conspiracy,” added Rifi, referring to slain Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch chief Wissam al-Hassan, who was assassinated in October 2012, only months after Samaha's arrest.

Later on Wednesday, Rifi announced that he received a phone call from al-Mustaqbal movement leader ex-PM Saad Hariri, who “condemned” the issued verdict and “inquired about the legal measures that can be taken to appeal this ethical and national scandal.”

Rifi also referred the Military Court's civilian counselor Judge Layla Raidy to judicial inspection in connection with the verdict, media reports said.

Meanwhile, State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud asked State Commissioner to the Military Court Saqr Saqr to launch proceedings to appeal the ruling against Samaha, NNA said.

Saqr immediately demanded the Military Court to hand him the file of the verdict in order to “review it and prepare for appealing it.”

For his part, al-Mustaqbal movement secretary general Ahmed Hariri said on Twitter: "After the issuance of the farce of a verdict against Michel Samaha, the Military Court should be 'sealed with red wax.'”

"May God have mercy on Wissam al-Hassan, as it is not fair for him to die and for the criminal to remain alive," Hariri added.

During Wednesday's session, the court heard the testimony of the witness Fares Barakat, who was Samaha's personal driver when the alleged plot was coordinated.

“Samaha has pleaded innocent,” his lawyer Sakhr al-Hashem announced after the session, noting that Lebanese security services informer “Milad Kfouri dragged him into the issue and convinced him that the arms (explosives) would be used on the border” between Lebanon and Syria.

He fell into Kfouri's “trap,” the lawyer added.

Hashem also pointed out that Samaha did not have any contact with Mamluk and that he coordinated the plot with a Syrian officer identified only by his first name, Adnan.

“Samaha only transported the explosives as a 'delivery driver',” the lawyer went on to say.

On April 20, Samaha had pleaded guilty to all charges against him, admitting in court that he had transported explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon.

But the former information minister said he had been the victim of entrapment because he was not aware that his co-conspirator was a Lebanese security services informer.

Samaha, who was also once an adviser to Syria's President Bashar Assad, made the surprise admission during the first session of his long-delayed trial before the Military Court.

"I received from the Syrians $170,000 inside a bag... and put it in the boot of my car with the explosives," he said.

He said he drove the money and explosives to Beirut in August 2012 and handed them over to a man named Milad Kfouri, who he was unaware was working with Lebanese intelligence.

"I fell into the trap laid by Milad Kfouri, who was tied to the intelligence services," Samaha said.

"True, I made a mistake, but I wanted to avoid sectarian strife."

Samaha's lawyer Rana Azoury said Samaha explained during the April 20 session that he had been "harassed" for four months by Kfouri to transport the explosives to be used in blasts on the Lebanese border.

The explosions were intended to force the closure of the border and stop the passage of Lebanese fighters who wanted to join rebels fighting against the Syrian regime, he was quoted as saying.

"Under Lebanese law, if you acted because of the encouragement of an agent provocateur, that is exculpatory and a legitimate self-defense," Azoury said in explaining Samaha's testimony.

Samaha's trial had been postponed multiple times because of the absence of Ali Mamluk, who remains in Syria, but after a judge separated the cases against the two men, a first trial session began on April 20.

The Lebanese judiciary has issued an arrest warrant for Mamluk and sent Syria a formal notification of the warrant and charges, but received no response.

Y.R.