Samaha Trial Postponed to December

The trial of former Information Minister Michel Samaha has been postponed to December, reported the National News Agency Thursday.

It explained that the postponement is aimed at granting time to summon Syrian security chief General Ali Mamlouk to the trial.

The proceedings are set to resume on December 3 after they started at the military court in Beirut on Wednesday.

Samaha appeared in good health during the brief session, wearing a blue suit and speaking only briefly to offer his name, age and place of residence, reported AFP.

The trial includes Mamlouk and a Syrian colonel identified only by his first name Adnan.

Samaha, who is considered close to the Syrian regime, was arrested in August last year for planning attacks in Lebanon along with the two Syrian officials.

They were indicted in February this year "for transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon in an attempt to assassinate Lebanese political and religious leaders."

Arrest warrants have been issued for Mamlouk and Adnan, but they remain at large.

The Lebanese judiciary sent Syria a formal notification of the warrants and charges in February, but received no response.

In the event of a non-response, Lebanese law allows for the trial against Samaha to proceed with Mamlouk being tried in absentia, but the court has not so far suggested it would take that approach.

Sakher Hashem, one of Samaha's defense lawyers, said "the political situation has a major role in this process".

"Issuing an indictment against the head of the Syrian state security... is a declaration of war on the Syrian state," he told AFP.

"Prosecuting Ali Mamlouk is a step that no one can take," he added, saying he believed the court had delayed the trial in order to see how the political situation would evolve in coming months.

Hashem said his client, who has remained in jail since his arrest last year, wanted a speedy trial.