Jumblat Says Citizens are Victims of 'Security Agencies Duel'

Progressive Socialist Party leader ex-MP Walid Jumblat on Friday lamented that “ordinary citizens” seem to have become the victim of the clash of security agencies.

“The Itani-Ghabash-Hajj farce reminds me of the farce of Khalil Sehnaoui, who was accused of collaboration (with Israel) before being released after an agonizing ordeal because he also was a victim of the duel of agencies, the power struggle and the conflict among those who are in power,” Jumblat tweeted.

“But who protects the ordinary citizen?” he asked.

On Thursday, the Military Court acquitted Internal Security Forces Lt. Col. Suzanne al-Hajj and sentenced the hacker Elie Ghabash to a year in prison on charges of fabricating electronic evidence to frame the actor Ziad Itani in a spying for Israel case.

Itani was cleared of charges and released in March 2018 after spending 109 days in detention. Hajj was briefly detained before being released on bail.

Observers believe the case has been influenced by rivalry between the Internal Security Forces and State Security agencies which are respectively backed by the al-Mustaqbal Movement and the Free Patriotic Movement.

State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Peter Germanos, who is close to the FPM, has also been accused of seeking Hajj's acquittal in order to take vengeance on the ISF, which he believes has sought to implicate him in an ongoing probe into judicial corruption.