Retrial for Sidon terrorist ordered
Lebanon, Judicial, 10/2/1997

A Palestinian man given three life sentences in absentia for staging terrorist operations in Sidon was handed over on October 1 for his retrial, judicial officials in Beirut said.

Bilal Khaled Sheiti, a member of Esbat Al Ansar, had been convicted of detonating a bomb at the Hilton cinema in Sidon on the pretext that it showed pornographic films, and of firing a gun at an army patrol near Ain el Hilweh refugee camp. He was arrested by army intelligence, which referred him to military prosecutor Nasri Lahoud.

Details of the place and date of his arrest were unavailable. According to Lebanese law, people sentenced in absentia are retried when they surrender or are arrested.

Esbat Al Ansar is an outlawed Sunni fundamentalist group headed by Ahmed Abdel Karim Saadi, alias Abu Mehjan, who in January was sentenced to death in absentia for killing Sheikh Nizar Halabi, the head of the Association of Islamic Philanthropic Projects, in Beirut in 1995.

Saadi, who is believed to have been hiding in Ain Al Hilweh east of Sidon, is an advocate of Wahabism, a strict school of Islamic though widely endorsed in Saudi Arabia. Halabi was a staunch critic of Wahabism.

Twenty alleged members of Esbat Al Ansar were charged on September 10 with staging terrorist as against shops selling alcohol in Sidon. Among the seven in custody in connection with the bombings are four Lebanese and three Palestinians.

Previous Stories:
  Anti-aircraft missile discovered near school   (9/30/1997)
  Sidon eatery bombed   (9/15/1997)
  Trial of seven alleged collaborators postponed   (9/4/1997)

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