LCCC
ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 14/09
Bible Reading of the day
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to
Saint Luke 11:37-41. After he had spoken, a Pharisee invited him to dine at his
home. He entered and reclined at table to eat.
The Pharisee was amazed to see that he did not observe the prescribed washing
before the meal. The Lord said to him, "Oh you Pharisees! Although you cleanse
the outside of the cup and the dish, inside you are filled with plunder and
evil. You fools! Did not the maker of the outside also make the inside? But as
to what is within, give alms, and behold, everything will be clean for you.
Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special
Reports
When
delinquency turns dangerous/The
Daily Star/October
13/09
Ten
years of European Security and Defense Policy/By
Javier Solana/October
13/09
Report: German-owned ship transferred Iran arms to Syria/Ha'aretz/October
13/09
Latest
News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 13/09
Williams: Teir Felsay's Explosion
Reports 'Worrying'-Naharnet
IDF: Clip proves Hezbollah removed arms from blast
site/Ha'aretz
Conflicting reports on
blast in south Lebanon-Daily Star
Hezbollah turning Lebanon into powderkeg: Peres/AFP
Israel Accuses Hezbollah of Violating Lebanon
Truce/Voice of America
Lebanon Army Arrests Three Fath Al-Islam
Activists Who Planned To Strike At Army/MEMRI
Geagea:
Positive Contributions Affecting Cabinet Formation-Naharnet
Jumblat:
Meeting with Nasrallah Rebuilt Mutual Trust-Naharnet
Berri:
UAE Expelled Lebanese Row in 'Safe Hands'-Naharnet
Qahwaji from Ain al-Rummaneh:
No Tolerance for Security Disrupters-Naharnet
Hariri
Sends Sfeir Message of Support for His National Stances-Naharnet
Crucial Talks between
Hariri, Allies with Emphasis on Power Balance in Cabinet-Naharnet
Lebanon: Hezbollah
Munitions Cache Explodes/New York Times
Hezbollah official among
dead in Lebanon blast: sources/Washington Post
Turkey cancels air
exercise with Israel, NATO as ties with Syria improve/World Tribune
Israel demands U.N. probe
of Lebanon blast-Reuters
Munitions store blown up
at Hizballah's South Lebanon command center?DeBKA file
Turkey sends ten ministers
to Syria for strategic talks/Jerusalem Post
United Arab Emirates:
Court Convicts American/New York Times
Aoun
says his talks with Hariri were 'extremely positive/ Daily Star
UAE convicts
Lebanese-American on terror charges/ Daily Star
Berri arrives in Abu Dhabi
to discuss deportations of Lebanese from UAE/Daily Star
Lebanese see Obama's Nobel
Prize as premature/Daily Star
Iran dismisses Clinton
threat as Britain bars firms/AFP
Kuwaiti MP seeks to scrap
Sharia controls in election law/AFP
Lebanese ministers keen on
enforcing IPR/Daily Star
Lebanese Forces decry
ex-MP's claims on Zahle militant training camp/Daily Star
Baroud defends move to ban
motorcycles at night/Daily Star
AUB welcomes free thinking
for the new term/Daily Star
Protestors gather to save
Nahr al-Bared/Daily Star
Danish donation speeds
clearing of cluster bombs/Daily Star
Lebanon's women can't
shake chains of domesticity/Daily Star
Senior Hezbollah official killed in Lebanon blast
By Avi Issacharoff and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondents
A senior official of the Hezbollah militant group was killed on Monday evening
when an explosion rocked a house apparently serving as a munitions bunker in
south Lebanon.
Hezbollah denied that the house was being used as an arms depot and said that
the munitions that caused the blast had belonged to the Israel Defense Forces
and were left over from the 2006 Second Lebanon War.
At least five other people were reportedly killed in the blast, which took place
in a three-story building in the southern Lebanese village of Tayr Filsi, on the
southern bank of the Litani River.
The identity of the militant has not yet been confirmed, but security sources
listed his son among the fatalities. Hezbollah has also denied the number of
casualties reported in the media, saying only one other person was wounded in
the incident.
A July explosion in an abandoned building in another southern village was said
to have been caused by a fire in a Hezbollah arms depot. The militant group said
at the time that the building housed ammunition leftover from Israeli attacks on
Lebanon.
The Lebanon-based militant group has also accused Israel of responsibility in
the 2008 assassination of its deputy secretary general, Imad Mughniyah, in
Damascus.
Israel has denied playing any role in Mughniyah's deatj, but Hezbollah has
repeatedly vowed to avenge the assassination.
Conflicting reports on blast in south Lebanon
By Mohammed Zaatari /Daily Star staff
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
TYRE, Lebanon: Conflicting reports emerged concerning the cause and casualties
of an explosion in the southern village of Tayr Felsay, near the port city of
Tyre on Monday night. A statement by Hizbullah sent to the media late on Monday
denied any fatalities. “News was made available that an explosion took place in
the garage of one of our brothers in Tayr Felsay leading to the injury of one
person, who was rushed to hospital,” the Hizbullah statement said, adding that
investigations were under way “to uncover the nature and the causes of the
blast.”
“News about fatalities is baseless,” the statement said. Reuters, however,
quoted security sources as saying that a Hizbullah official, his son and three
others were killed in a munitions explosion in their home in Tayr Felsay The
village is located on the southern bank of the Litani River, just inside the
United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) area of operations.
The man was identified as Abdel Nasser Issa, 41. The cause of the blast appeared
to be accidental, Reuters said. The area was cordoned off. A third version
carried by AFP said Issa was seriously wounded when a rocket he found near his
home and was trying to defuse exploded. A security official told AFP the blast
shook Issa’s home and left him with severe burns and injuries to his face and
body. “His condition is very serious because he has been left with burns on his
face and the rest of his body,” said the official, who was speaking on condition
of anonymity. He added that a fire broke out in the two-storey building after
the explosion. Witnesses told AFP that Issa had found the rocket earlier by a
river that runs near his home, and had recovered the device. Hizbullah fought a
devastating war with Israel in July-August 2006. The region is still littered
with unexploded ordnance. A similar explosion in an abandoned building in the
village of Kherbet Selem in July was said to have been caused by a fire in an
alleged Hizbullah arms depot. - With Agencies
Report: Iran used German ship
to send arms to Syria
13/10/2009 /By Haaretz Service
American soldiers stationed in the Gulf of Suez discovered containers of
ammunition aboard a German-owned cargo ship allegedly transporting the arms from
Iran to Syria, the influential German daily newspaper Der Spiegel reported on
Monday. The newspaper quoted a German diplomat as saying that the incident
represents "an embarrassing affair" for Berlin, the consequences of which could
be troublesome for trans-Atlantic relations. The ammunition, which comprised
7.62 millimeter bullets suitable for Kalashnikov rifles, is believed to have
been intended for either the Syrian army or Hezbollah. U.S. soldiers boarded the
freighter Hansa India, which is registered to a Hamburg-based shipping company
known as Leonhardt & Blumberg, according to Der Spiegel. American officials said
the arms shipment is a violation of UN Security Resolution 1747 which forbids
all weapons shipments into and out of Iran, the newspaper reported. Iran has
been a supplier of weapons and materiel to Syria and Hezbollah, the Shi'ite
Lebanon-based group which fought a war with Israel in 2006.
According to Der Spiegel, the freighter company said the ship, which was
intercepted by two U.S. warships in the Gulf of Suez, had been under charter to
Iran's state-owned shipping company. After the German government intervened in
the matter, the Americans permitted the ship to dock at Malta, where the
containers holding the ammunition were secured, according to Der Spiegel.
Lebanese Forces decry ex-MP's claims
on Zahle militant training camp
Daily Star staff/Tuesday, October 13, 2009
BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces (LF) accused former MP Hassan Yaaqoub on Monday of
instigating civil strife after the latter reiterated accusations that the LF was
training militants in the Bekaa town of Zahle. “Yaaqoub is urged to put an end
to his ‘cheap’ allegations that the LF is training military cells in Zahle,”
said a statement issued by the LF media office. In a news conference on Monday
at his residence in the Bekaa town of Bednayel, Yaaqoub revealed the names of
nine men who were allegedly being given military training by the LF in the Wadi
al-Arayesh region of Zahle. The former Zahle MP claimed that these men were
arrested by the Lebanese Army, “but were later unarrested due to political
pressures.” “Such military trainings only threaten civil peace,” he said. In
their statement, the LF urged Yaaqoub to apologize to Zahle residents for his
allegations, adding that the former MP had insisted on accusing the party in
spite of the LF’s filing a lawsuit against him. Last week, the LF filed a
lawsuit against Yaaqoub demanding LL 10 billion compensation for damages after
he made similar accusations that the LF had trained militants in Zahle. In his
news conference on Monday, Yaaqoub said he filed a lawsuit against the LF leader
Samir Geagea. Both Yaaqoub and the LF statement gave a list containing the
initials, dates of birth and registration numbers of the nine young men.
According to the LF, a group of 10 young men, three of whom were “underage,”
were camping in Wadi al-Arayesh. The LF added that the Lebanese Army had
searched and interrogated the campers before handing them over to the Internal
Security Forces. The statement added that they were then released by the office
of the attorney general in the Bekaa, adding that they were carrying hunting
weapons, “just like thousands of other Lebanese.”
Also on Monday, Tourism Minister and Zahle MP Elie Marouni dismissed Yaaqoub’s
accusations and described them as “baseless.” – The Daily Star
Aoun says his talks with Hariri were 'extremely positive'
Unity cabinet to be created by October 28 – source
By Nafez Qawas /Daily Star correspondent
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun described his talks on Monday
with Prime Minister-designate Saad Hariri in Rabieh as “extremely positive.”
Meanwhile, well-informed sources close to the deliberations told The Daily Star
that a national unity cabinet would see the light “very soon.” “A government
gathering all groups will see the light between the 25th and the 28th of October
at the latest,” the source said.
While Hariri left Aoun’s residence after almost three hours of discussions on
Monday without making any statements, Aoun told reporters: “The atmosphere is
very positive and talks will continue.” Despite the positive signs that emanated
from last week’s talks between Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi King
Abdullah, well-informed sources told the Central News Agency on Monday that
Saudi Arabia and Syria “have yet to finalize an outlook on the situation in
Lebanon.”
The same sources added that the two countries “refuse to interfere in the
distribution of portfolios and picking the names of ministers for the next
government because it is a strictly Lebanese matter.” Other media reports said
internal obstacles to the cabinet formation persist with regard to the finance
and telecommunications ministries.
Hariri stepped down in early September after he failed to reach a deal with Aoun
concerning the Telecommunications Ministry, which Aoun is insisting on including
in his cabinet share. Hariri was re-designated by a majority of MPs soon
afterward. The reports added that Aoun is still demanding to be granted the
Finance Ministry if the FPM was to give up the telecommunications portfolio.
Caretaker Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said following talks at the Baabda Palace
with President Michel Sleiman on Monday that Hariri was “working hard” to reach
a cabinet formula that pleases all parties. “Rigid stances will prohibit Hariri
from forming the cabinet quickly,” Siniora said, adding that he “trusts” the
cabinet will be formed soon “due to Hariri’s determination.”
“I wholeheartedly trust in Hariri’s wisdom, patience and integrity to form a
cabinet,” the departing premier said.
Meanwhile, a high-ranking source in the parliamentary majority told An-Nahar
newspaper that Hizbullah has “made it clear that it wants a government to be
formed based on the power equation that preceded the June 7 elections.”
“The opposition wants to ignore the results of the election,” the source told
the daily.
The source added that the majority wants a constitutional government to be
formed. The source stressed that the March 14 Forces believe a return to
pre-June 7 was “out of the question.”
Also on Monday, Hizbullah’s Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Nawwaf Moussawi
said during a rally in the southern village of Jibshit that Arab countries were
not to blame if the Lebanese fail to benefit from “opportunity” of Saudi-Syrian
rapprochement and form a national-unity cabinet as soon as possible.
“It would be revolting for Lebanon to suffer from injustice for the past four
years due to Arab conflicts, but not to benefit from [the current]
rapprochement,” he added.
Moussawi added that the US administration was interfering in Lebanese politics
in a bid to push for the formation of a majority cabinet instead of a
national-unity one.
He called on Hariri to accelerate cabinet formation “by using Arab support to
thwart US pressure”
Also on Monday, March 14 Forces MP Butros Harb slammed the opposition, accusing
it of “implicitly working to hinder” the government formation process.
“The rhetoric adopted in the media is at odds with their actual schemes to
obstruct the formation of a government,” he said.
In other news, Armenian Tashnag Party MP Hagop Pakradounian stressed the
importance of dialogue between Hariri and Aoun, and called for benefiting from
the recent Saudi-Syrian rapprochement to finalize the new cabinet. “Only a
national-unity government will be formed,” he said on Monday.
Pakradounian said the Tashnag party would not accept to be granted a ministry of
state, nor is it “very interested” in being granted the Ministry of Energy and
Water Resources again.
He stressed his party’s “right” to take part in the new government is
“guaranteed within the opposition’s share.”
Lebanese ministers keen on enforcing IPR
Copyright-based sectors employ over 50,000 citizens
By Dana Halawi/Daily Star staff
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
BEIRUT: Culture Minister Tammam Salam emphasized on Monday the need to enforce
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in Lebanon in order to contribute to the
improvement in the performance of various Lebanese sectors. “The necessity of
enforcing IPR in Lebanon stems from the fact that cultural fields contribute to
4.75 percent of GDP in addition to contributing to the employment of 4.95
percent of the national labor,” he said.
“Our study on the contributions of IPR to the various Lebanese sectors plays an
important role in specifying our priorities which include raising the awareness
of and educating people on the positive outcomes of respecting IPR,” he added.
His remarks came came during the fifth regional coordination meeting of heads of
industrial property and copyright offices in Arab countries held at Crown Plaza
hotel in Beirut. The forum aims at discussing the implications of recent
developments in the field of intellectual property.
According to recent statistics of the Institute of Finance, the copyright-based
sectors in Lebanon employ 50,304 workers with around 46.44 percent in the core
industries. It states that the copyright industries contribute 4.74 percent to
GDP and 4.54 percent to employment while the core industries contribute 2.53
percent to GDP and 2.11 percent to employment.
The study added that $555.52 million of value added was generated from the core
copyright industries including press and literature, music, theatrical
productions, radio and television, software and databases, advertising and
others.
Salam stressed the importance of innovation in the field of IPR, saying that
piracy and hacking are extremely widespread around the world which creates the
need of making huge efforts at the regional, national and international levels
in order to solve this issue. “Technologies have allowed us to reach a point
where there is no difference between an original and a pirated version which
means that fighting piracy has become increasingly difficult.” “We also need to
have all our products marketed at affordable prices in the Lebanese market for
us to prevent piracy activities,” he added. Economy and Trade Minister Mohammad
Safadi traced the efforts of the ministry of economy and trade in enforcing IPR.
“We collaborated with a special bureau at the legislative police in terms of IPR.
We have also worked in close collaboration with the Internal Security Forces in
order to highlight and cease any violation of IPR,” he said.
He added that 80 monitors and more than 30 from the tarish police have been
subjected to various seminars about IPR and have learned to deal with it and
make it respected.”
Safadi insisted on the importance of granting patents and trademarks across the
Arab world, an opinion that was supported by Saad al-Faraji, the permanent
representative of Arab League. “Egypt is the first Arab country to make
prerequisite studies for granting patents which should also take place in all of
the other Arab countries,” said Faraji. He stressed the importance of giving the
Arabic language all of its rights for it to become an official language of the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) just like any other country in
the United Nations. “Arab countries lag behind and this is partly due to the
lack of resources in Arabic.” Francis Gury, WIPO’s director general, outlined
the importance of the national IP offices’ role, saying they are required to
contribute to national IP policy and strategy formulation in addition to
developing a modern and cost effective IP management system and many others. He
stressed the need to develop human resources for the support of IP
infrastructure. “I am committed to improving WIPO information resources
available in Arabic,” he added
When delinquency turns dangerous
By The Daily Star
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Editorial
Last week, a group of youths stabbed five youngsters in the Beirut suburb of Ain
al-Remmaneh. In most countries, an incident on such a small scale would have
been answered by no more than grieving for the victims’ family, and the
reassurance of the support of the community. But this incident, which pitted a
handful of Ain al-Remmaneh residents against those of Shiyyah, has unleashed the
political passions of many Lebanese who have looked at it through the lens of
sectarianism. The fact that Ain al-Remanneh is a Christian district, while
Shiyyah is mainly populated by Shiites, has propelled initial acts of simple
delinquency into the country’s toxic political ground.
Political leaders are in part responsible for having accustomed Lebanese to
resort to the sectarian grid of analysis to interpret everyday realities. They
have too often defined their own political aspirations along the sectarian
divide, at times encouraging the tensions between sectarian groups to make
political gains. It is only natural for their electorate to resort to the
rhetoric with which they have been made familiar. Sectarian motives were
seemingly absent in last week’s incident and previous ones of a similar nature.
Yet many Lebanese have been quick at drawing comparisons between both episodes
that suggest we could see a repeat of Lebanon’s bloody sectarian strife. This
debate, instead of providing an explanation of the violence, has only deflected
the public attention away from addressing the very issue that underlies the
repeated incidents of a similar nature – it is the weakness of the Lebanese
judicial system by which criminality is often left undeterred that should
preoccupy us, not the hypothetical sectarian motives behind the crimes. That is
as a result of Lebanon’s political climate, the initiatives of the few who are
tempted to resort to personal revenge to right the wrongs, instead of being
faced with widespread condemnation, are validated by the partisan political
climate. Accusations that sectarian opponents resort to violence thus risk
turning into a destructive self-fulfilling prophecy – what was initially no more
than petty criminality is responded to by sectarian violence, and becomes just
that. This vicious circle is all the more encouraged by the political class’ use
of the sectarian divide to acquire political capital, while leaving aside more
essential questions of state-building, chief of which is the necessity of
reinforcing the independence of the judiciary. If the recent violence in Ain al-Remmaneh
tells us anything, it is that in order for Lebanon to aspire to be a healthy
democracy, it will have to address the sectarian bias that undermines its
judiciary.
Ten years of European Security and Defense Policy
By Javier Solana/Commentary by
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The year 2009 is a landmark year for the European Union’s role in the world. It
marks ten years of European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP), during which the
EU became a global provider of security, making a real difference to people’s
lives all over the world. At the same time, we are on the threshold of a new era
when the Lisbon Treaty enters into force and provides fresh impetus for our
external action.
In ten years, we have deployed 20 operations on three continents to help prevent
violence, restore peace and rebuild after a conflict. From Kabul to Pristina,
from Ramallah to Kinshasa, the EU is monitoring borders, overseeing peace
agreements, training police forces, building up criminal justice systems and
protecting shipping from pirate attacks. Thanks to our achievements, we are
receiving more and more calls to help in a crisis or after a war. We have the
credibility, the values and the will to do this.
The EU was ahead of its time in 1999. The comprehensive, multi-faceted nature of
our approach was novel. And the EU remains the only organization that can call
on a full panoply of instruments and resources that complement the traditional
foreign policy tools of its member states, both to pre-empt or prevent a crisis
and to restore peace and rebuild institutions after a conflict.
This is where the EU’s unique added value lies. We combine humanitarian aid and
support for institution-building and good governance with crisis-management
capacities, technical and financial assistance, and political dialogue and
mediation. The EU’s joint civilian-military approach makes us flexible and able
to offer tailor-made solutions to complex problems. Today’s conflicts
demonstrate more clearly than ever that a military solution is neither the sole
nor the best option, particularly during the stabilization of a crisis – a truth
President Barack Obama has also emphasized.
The ESDP first cut its teeth in the Balkans. When the Yugoslav wars broke out in
the 1990’s we watched as our neighborhood burned because we had no means of
responding to the crisis. We learned our lesson and organized ourselves,
acquiring a set of capabilities coupled with decision-making procedures and a
security doctrine. In 2003, we prevented a fresh outbreak of hostilities in the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia through our diplomatic efforts and then
deployed Operation Concordia. In 2004, Operation Althea took over from the NATO
peacekeeping force in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Today, we are still deeply engaged
in the Balkans, fighting organized crime and building up the institutions of law
and order. For example, EULEX Kosovo is the largest EU mission to date, with
some 2,000 staff, working in the police and judicial system and in mobile
customs teams.
The EU’s crisis-management and peace-building activities are not restricted to
its backyard. We have made a difference in Africa, helping, for example, to
provide a secure environment for elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo
and protecting refugees and aid workers from the fall-out of the Darfur crisis.
Last year, we mounted EUNAVFOR, our first-ever naval operation, to combat piracy
in the waters off Somalia. Who would have guessed 10 years ago that the EU would
one day lead a taskforce of 13 frigates in the Indian Ocean that would cut the
success rate of pirate attacks by half?This year the EU has 12 operations
running concurrently – more than ever before. Since 2003, some 70,000 men and
women have been deployed in 23 crisis-management operations. They come from EU
member states and non-EU countries that also take part in our operations,
including Norway, Switzerland, Ukraine, Turkey and the United States.
Of these 23 missions, six have been military and the other 17 civilian. We
deploy army or navy personnel when and where they are needed but our business is
peace-building not waging war. The EU is not a military alliance. The solution
to any crisis, emergency or conflict, must always be political and our ESDP
actions are always firmly anchored in political strategies, formed by consensus.
Last year, we showed how rapidly we could mobilize when we deployed a monitoring
mission to the Caucasus in less than three weeks to help defuse the crisis
between Russia and Georgia, following the EU-mediated peace agreement. As a
member of the International Quartet, the EU is deeply engaged at diplomatic
level in the Middle East peace process and the moment an agreement is reached
between the Israelis and Palestinians we will be ready to help implement it on
the ground. We already have a mission in the West Bank helping to build up the
Palestinian civil police and criminal justice system. In Somalia, we are
considering security-sector reform measures to complement EUNAVFOR Somalia and
the humanitarian aid and political support that we are already providing. To
respond to the growing calls to help tackle regional and global security
challenges, the EU must improve the efficiency and coherence of its external
action still further. We currently have a gap between our ambitions and our
resources which must be addressed. Clearer priorities and more sensible
budgeting decisions are needed. And we need to strengthen our civilian and
military capabilities and boost their funding in order to back up our political
decisions. The EU’s unique, joint civilian-military approach must be further
developed to make us yet more flexible. Our capacity to deploy rapid reaction
forces also needs strengthening. In the second decade of ESDP, the Lisbon Treaty
will put all this within the EU’s grasp.
**Javier Solana is EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security
Policy (CFSP). THE DAILY STAR publishes this commentary in collaboration with
Project Syndicate © (www.project-syndicate.com
Kuwaiti MP seeks to scrap Sharia controls in election law
By Agence France Presse (AFP) /Tuesday, October 13, 2009
KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti female lawmaker Rula Dashti on Sunday submitted an
amendment to the Gulf state electoral law that aims to scrap a requirement that
women must comply with Islamic Sharia law guidelines. The guidelines were
introduced four years ago when Parliament voted to grant women full political
rights but added a precondition that both women voters and candidates must
comply with regulations dictated by Sharia law. The law does not explain the
nature of the regulations, but last week the emirate’s Fatwa Department ruled
that under Islamic law, it is an obligation for Muslim women to wear the hijab
head cover. Although the fatwa, or religious edict, was general in nature and
did not specifically refer to Kuwait’s election law, it triggered conflicting
reactions from Islamist and liberal lawmakers and activists. Islamist lawmakers
called on female MPs and a minister to comply with the ruling while liberal and
female legislators stressed the fatwa is not binding since it did not come from
the constitutional court. “The fatwa is not binding to the Kuwaiti society. The
only reference for us is the Constitution,” issued in 1962, she told AFP. Dashti
said that including Sharia regulations in the electoral law is a breach of the
constitution. “The regulations clearly violate articles in the constitution
which call for gender equality and make no reference to Sharia regulations,” she
added. Four Kuwaiti women made history in May when they won seats in parliament
for the first time. – AFP
UAE convicts Lebanese-American on terror charges
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
ABU DHABI: Using sweeping security codes passed after the September 11 attacks,
the United Arab Emirates’ highest court convicted a Lebanese American Monday on
terrorism-related charges amid claims that torture was used to extract his
confession. The four-month trial of Naji Hamdan also was carried out without
making public details of the accusations – showing the tight lid on information
over security matters in a nation that promotes itself as the West’s foothold in
the Gulf. Anti-terrorism laws in the Emirates, passed in the aftermath of the
2001 US terrorist attacks, have been often expanded to muzzle political dissent
and have drawn sharp criticism from international rights groups. The court
sentenced Hamdan, an American of Lebanese origin, to 18 months in prison after
facing three terrorism-related charges, including having ties an Al-Qaeda group
in Iraq. But Hamdan – who denied the allegations – should be freed soon because
the sentence takes into account the time he spent in custody since his arrest
here last year.
Once he serves his time, Hamdan is to be deported from the country. Hamdan’s
lawyer, Abdel-Khader al-Haithami, claimed in an earlier hearing that his client
suffered torture and threats in detention and was forced to sign a confession
“to whatever they wanted to hear.” The case is a “classic example” of problems
associated with state security and terrorism-related trials around the region,
said Deborah Manning, a senior legal officer with Al-Karama, a Geneva-based and
Arab world-focused human rights organization.
“Serious allegations are often not backed by proper evidence,” Manning said.
“Heavy reliance on secret information severely prejudices the proper defense.”
In his verdict, chief justice Khalifa al-Muhairi gave no details on his decision
such as whether the 43-year-old Hamdan was convicted of all three charges. There
are no appeals to verdicts by the UAE’s Federal Supreme Court. “I’m disappointed
because I was not acquitted,” Hamdan told the Associated Press as he was led
away by security forces after the verdict.
Rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, also have accused
US authorities of pushing the case in the Emirates because they lacked enough
evidence for American courts. The ACLU asked a US court to press for a halt to
the case, but a US judge ruled in August that there was no authority to
interfere in a foreign criminal prosecution.
“The security system in the UAE is very powerful,” said Abduldkhadi al-Khawaja,
a Bahrain-based coordinator for Frontline, an international group that protects
human rights activists. “Their activities are not related only to terrorism, but
any kind of political activism, including defending human rights.”
Political parties are not allowed in the UAE and associations for the promotion
of civil liberties and human rights are closely controlled. Leading lawyers,
university professors and activists have been detained and questioned by
security services, rights groups say. Some have been fired from their jobs,
others have been banned from public life after they were released from detention
without ever being charged with any crime. Hamdan said he was not politically
active after he moved with his family back to the Middle East in 2006 after
living in the United States for almost 20 years. He was an active member of the
Islamic community in the Los Angeles area, where he ran a successful auto parts
business.
He said the FBI began questioning him about whether he had terrorist ties in
1999. He was never charged with any crime in the United States.
He was arrested in the UAE in August 2008 and charged in June 2009 with
supporting terrorism, working with terrorist organizations and being a member of
a terrorist group.
After his arrest, he wrote a note to a US diplomat – which was later obtained by
the AP – saying he was subjected to beatings, threats to his family and verbal
abuse.
The US Embassy in the Emirates had declined to comment on the case except to say
that Hamdan has been given consular support. – AP