Report: Samaha Case to Take New Turn after Damning Video Emerges

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr is working on appealing the verdict issued in the case of former Minister Michel Samaha in light of the emergence of a video of the official that shows him discussing the transportation of explosives and plotting to assassinate Lebanese figures, reported An Nahar daily on Saturday.

Sources revealed that the Military Tribunal that charged Samaha failed to view the video showing the former minister with informant Milad Kfouri in which he speaks of transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon in order to carry out attacks.

Saqr will demand that the recording be presented before the court because the verdict only relied on written accounts, reported An Nahar.

The sources added that the case could take a new turn if victims associated in the affair or others mentioned in the recording would file a suit before the civil court or demand his retrial on murder attempt charges.

The tribunal sentenced on Wednesday Samaha to four-and-a-half years in jail over terrorism charges.

Arrested in August 2012, he 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.

The verdict created uproar among politicians and civil society, who slammed the Military Tribunal for its light verdict.

Samaha was found guilty of "having tried to carry out terrorist actions and for belonging to an armed group" and was also stripped of his civil and political rights.

The defense team argues that the former minister fell into a trap set by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch.

Samaha, who was also once an adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, admitted in court last month that he had transported explosives from Syria for use in attacks in Lebanon, but argued that he had been the victim of entrapment.

The explosives were to be used in blasts on the Lebanese border, intended to force the closure of the frontier and stop the passage of Lebanese fighters joining rebel forces in Syria.

The prosecution had charged Samaha and Syrian security services chief Ali Mamlouk with transporting explosives and planning attacks and assassinations of political and religious figures in Lebanon.

The trial was postponed multiple times because of the absence of Mamlouk, who remains in Syria, until a judge separated the two cases, allowing Samaha's trial to open on April 20.

M.T.

D.A.