Nineteen more anti-Syrian Christian activists received sentences Tuesday for "belonging to dissolved groups" as part of the Lebanese army's crackdown on anti-Syrian forces, court sources told AFP.
The penal court of the Mount Lebanon district just outside Beirut issued jail sentences ranging between 15 days and one month to seven people, they said.
Twelve others were ordered to pay fines of 100,000 pounds ($67), they said.
They were all charged with "belonging to dissolved and banned groups and for raising flags, banners and slogans supporting those groups," they said.
Three people were found innocent and ordered to be released, they said.
The defendants were all followers of the dissolved Lebanese Forces (LF) party, whose chief Samir Geagea is serving several multiple life sentences for political assassinations during the country's 1975-1990 civil war, and of the Free National Current (FNC) of General Michel Aoun, who lives in exile in Paris.
More than 200 anti-Syrian Christians, mostly LF and FNC followers, were seized in last week's army crackdown after public protests against neighboring Syria's dominance over Lebanon, where it maintains thousands of troops.
They include Tawfiq Hindi, advisor to former LF chief Geagea, and retired general Nadim Lteif, coordinator in Lebanon of the FNC of Aoun.
Aoun had launched a "war of liberation" against Syria in 1989 before a Syrian-Lebanese military offensive forced him to flee to France one year later.
Hindi, the only person still being held at the defense ministry, has been accused of contacts with an Israeli official and the army command has distributed footage of his alleged confession.
His lawyers have accused the military of torturing or drugging Hindi.
State Prosecutor Adnan Addum said that investigations into Hindi's case would continue, probably for another two days, after which he would be referred to a military tribunal, reported the Daily Star.
Addum said that investigations were focused on Hindi's alleged contacts with Israeli officials.
The newspaper, meanwhile, said that the military investigating magistrate, Abdullah Hajj, questioned Lteif, who is charged with carrying out unauthorized actions, speeches and publications that threatened the integrity of the country, tarnishing Lebanon's relations with a sisterly country, transmitting fake and exaggerated news that could "weaken the nationalist spirit," belonging to an unlicensed organization and harming the Syrian army's reputation.
Lteif was questioned in the presence of his defense lawyer, former Constitutional Council member Salim Azar, and Beirut Bar Association member Nabil Toubiya, the paper added.
Among the more than 200 people arrested in the army roundups, some 145 have been referred to courts.
About 75 of them have been referred to a Beirut military tribunal, and many others have been released, the sources said.
Thirty-one people have been fined or sentenced to light jail sentences for asociating with the banned groups.
Thirteen others have been released, they said.
The army crackdown has been strongly criticized by Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and many ministers who complained that the operation, which has raised fears the regime is turning toward authoritarianism, was carried out behind their backs.
Nonetheless, Parliament, led by Hariri, granted on Monday the state's general prosecutor power to detain suspects for up to four days, an implicit submission to the military operation - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
