Hizbullah expels maverick sheikh and previous leader
Lebanon, Politics, 1/26/1998

The Shiite Muslim Hizbullah guerrilla group has expelled a maverick sheikh and the group's former secretary-general from the party's ranks, citing policy differences.

A statement issued by Hizbullah Saturday said Sheik Sobhi Tufeili was "no longer a member of our continuing movement after all he did to this movement yesterday and over several months and after he himself decided to abandon this movement."

The statement was referring to Tufeili's decision to hold a separate rally Friday on the occasion of Jerusalem day, in the same place Hizbullah holds a rally every year.

The statement also criticized Tufeili's "hunger revolt," which the sheikh launched in the summer of 1996 in protest at the government's policies towards the impoverished region of eastern Lebanon.

He staged anti-government demonstrations and urged citizens to stop paying utility bills until the government responded to his demands for free schooling, hospitalization and the implementation of development projects in the region.

"Ever since our brother Sheikh Sobhi Tufeili launched his movement under the title of 'revolution of the hungry' he practically removed himself from our movement and chose a completely different path than ours," the statement said.

Hizbullah also accused Tufeili of inflicting "moral and political" damages on the party's resistance movement. It also accused the sheikh of seeking to create divisions in the ranks of Hizbullah through his actions.

In response to Hizbullah's decision, Tufeili said Sunday he would present his case to a tribunal of Lebanese and Iranian Shiite clerics.

"I will then accept the decision of such a tribunal," he said at a press conference he held Sunday.

Tufeili was Hizbullah's secretary-general in 1987-89 but currently holds no official post in the party.

Previous Stories:
  Toufeili backs out on campaign   (12/5/1997)
  Government gives army free hand in eastern Bekaa   (11/12/1997)
  Toufeili's disobedience ends peacefully in the Bekaa   (10/27/1997)

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