BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea Thursday criticized the brief prison sentence handed down to former Minister Michel Samaha, calling it unfaithful to the Lebanese state and its people. “The verdict against Samaha is a huge betrayal against Lebanon, the state, the judiciary and the Lebanese Army – the Army that offered dozens of martyrs to defend the Lebanese people,” Geagea said at news conference.
The LF leader said some members of the military had not dealt properly with the case. Last week Samaha was sentenced by a military tribunal to four-and-a-half years in prison.
Samaha, who maintained close ties to Syrian President Bashar Assad, was arrested in 2012 and indicted the following year for smuggling explosives into Lebanon. He was convicted of planning to carry out bombings targeting political and religious figures.