134 Lebanese detainees in military court on terrorism charges

Lebanese judicial sources said yesterday that the military investigation judge yesterday issued a decision for bringing 30 Lebanese, including two carrying the Australian citizenship, and four Palestinians, all detained, to a military court.

All these arrested persons were accused of terrorism and attacking American interests and composing a terrorist society with the intention to commit crimes against people.

The decision which was issued by judge Riyadh Dlei called for trying five of those detainees on additional charges of carrying out terrorist operations which are blowing up explosives against four restaurants carrying American names, some of which resulted in wounding citizens.

The decision explained that the leader of the group whose identity was not disclosed is linked to Isbat al-Ansar, listed by the US as terrorist organizations.

The Judicial sources stressed that penalty for these accusations range between death penalty for the executors of the operations and those provoke for it, and imprisonment for those whose participation is limited to being a member of the "Isbat al-Ansar " society.

Worthy mentioning that the operations of arresting these detainees were made in several stages within the framework of a campaign launched in collaboration with the Syrian security forces following the attack against an US based fast-food restaurant chain McDonalds in Beirut on April 5th and resulted in wounding five persons.