The accusation against Geagea of ​​“murder and incitement to sedition” raises the tension

A new development has taken place in the file of the investigation into the events of Tayouneh, which witnessed armed clashes between members of Hezbollah and the “Amal” movement on the one hand, and armed men from the Ain al-Rummaneh area suspected of belonging to the “Lebanese Forces” party, after a sudden decision was issued by the government commissioner. Before the military court, Judge Fadi Akiki, in which he accused the head of the “forces” Dr. Samir Geagea of ​​“involvement” in the aforementioned events and attributed to him serious criminal crimes, including murder and inciting internal strife, which angered the “forces” party, which held Hezbollah fully responsible. On the events of Tayouneh, he accused him of “straining the atmosphere on the eve of the parliamentary elections with the aim of destabilizing it.”

More than five months after the Tayouneh events, which resulted in the killing of five people from Hezbollah and the Amal movement, Judge Akiki claimed Ali Geagea, attributing him to having committed “the crimes of direct interference with premeditated and premeditated murder, and attempted murder, inciting sectarian strife and incitement.” On strife between the Lebanese, internal fighting, endangering civil peace, possession of unlicensed military weapons and their use in armed clashes, undermining the authority and prestige of the state and sabotaging public and private property. The prosecution referred the first military investigative judge, Fadi Sawan, and asked him to interrogate Geagea and take the appropriate decision against him.

This procedure was previously paved by the military judiciary a week after the events, when Akiki instructed the Lebanese Army Intelligence at the time to summon Geagea to the Ministry of Defense and interrogate him as a suspect in the case, but the latter did not comply with this summons, so he was informed of him by pasting on the external gate of his headquarters in Maarab (Mount Lebanon), then the file was referred to the investigating judge without prosecuting him.

A judicial source in the military court confirmed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the military investigative judge, Fadi Sawan, “has handed over the prosecution’s paper to Geagea, and is now studying it and the data on which the Military Prosecutor (Aqqi) relied, in preparation for setting a session to interrogate Geagea in the military court,” revealing That the allegation “came based on new data that was available, and information collected by the security services, in implementation of the judicial recommendations for this file.”

And as to whether Geagea’s interrogation will take place at the latter’s headquarters in Maarab for security reasons, the judicial source familiar with the file’s secrets reminded that “the law is clear in this regard. The investigating judge is questioning the defendants in his office.” He said: “The law defines the cases in which the investigative judge is questioned outside his office, and he is the President of the Republic, the Speaker of Parliament and the Prime Minister. This exception did not include the heads of parties.”

It is expected that the timing of the prosecution will have political repercussions on Geagea on the ground, as a leader in the “Lebanese Forces” considered that “re-moving this file from the point of view of the prosecution against Dr. Samir Geagea has a political goal, especially since it comes on the eve of the parliamentary elections.” He stressed to “Asharq Al-Awsat”, that “this measure comes in the context of the adopted tension that moves from one file to another, which we witness almost daily in Lebanon.” The source, who declined to be named, said, “This team (Hezbollah) wants to stir up the atmosphere in order to disrupt the parliamentary elections, and the Ain Al-Remmaneh file is not an empty file, because the main suspect in it is Hezbollah.” He believed that “this judge (Aqiqi) and others are trying to divert attention from the firm and irrefutable truth that took place in the Battle of Ain al-Rummaneh.”

Geagea rejected the accusation of his party of causing the killing of the victims in Tayouneh, and responded to his summons at that time for investigation before the army intelligence, that he was ready to appear before any judicial or security reference, provided that Hezbollah officials submit to this investigation on the basis of reciprocity. The “Lebanese Forces” party questions the impartiality of Judge Fadi Akiki (son-in-law of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri) and his allegations in this file. They filed a complaint before the Judicial Inspection against Judge Fadi Akiki in response to the numerous violations he committed in this file, and they followed it up with the claim of rejecting Judge Akiki before the Civil Court of Appeal in Beirut, because of the animosity that arose between the two parties. He added: “Judge Akiki evaded those who reported his dismissal case, and deliberately stayed at his home in order to evade the person who was notified of his dismissal case, with the intentional intention of not taking his hand off the file, and, contrary to the law, while he was at his home, he alleges that Dr. Samir Geagea is guilty of criminal offenses.” “The Lebanese Forces Party sees in these practices a systematic destruction of the judiciary and justice, by some judges, in implementation of the agenda of political parties, specifically (Hezbollah) and (the Free Patriotic Movement), to settle political scores with the opponents.”