Judge Presses Charges against Tarras and Two Others over Links to IS

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr on Tuesday pressed charges against detained Sheikh Bassam al-Tarras and two other fugitives, Mohammed Qassem al-Ahmed and Mahmoud Rabih, for having ties to the Islamic State group, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The cleric was re-arrested last Wednesday after a brief detention in connection with the August 31 Ksara bombing.

He was summoned by the ISF Intelligence Branch for interrogation at the request of Assistant State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Hani Helmi al-Hajjar, who went to the branch's headquarters to oversee the investigations, reports had said.

Hajjar had ordered the arrest of Tarras pending further investigations in light of new information that was unveiled by Hajjar's interrogation of Tarras last week and the judicial writs that he issued as a result.

On September 15, the General Directorate of General Security said Tarras was briefly held in connection with the August 31 bombing over a meeting he held in Turkey with the attack's mastermind.

The brief arrest of Tarras, a former mufti of the Rashaya area, had created an uproar in Lebanon's Sunni community, especially among the ranks of the influential Muslim Scholars Committee and some Islamic activists.