Lebanon seeks death penalty for Palestinians and Syrians charged with terrorism

Lebanese judges today sought the death penalty for two detainees, in two separate cases, a Palestinian and a Syrian – as well as four other Syrian fugitives – on charges of belonging to terrorist organisations. The court also sought to prosecute seven other people for the same offense.

The military tribunal Judge Imad Zein demanded the death sentence for a Palestinian who had been detained on charges of belonging to an armed terrorist organisation, Fatah Al-Islam, and monitoring the Fatah officer Talal Al-Balaghi, known as Talal Al-Ordoni, with the aim of assassinating him.

In the same case, Zein issued search warrants against seven others in order to refer them to the Permanent Military Court for trial.

In May, a roadside bomb targeted Fatah members Al-Ordoni and Abu Shadi Al-Shabarbari in the neighbourhood of Hittin in the Palestinian refugee camp Ain Al-Hilweh in the city of Sidon.

Al-Ordoni and Al- Shabarbari survived however a woman and a young girl were injured.

In another trial, the government commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr charged a detained Syrian and four other Syrians fugitives of belonging, since 2012, to the “armed terrorist organization Ziad Al-Jarrah Battalion” and intending to carry out terrorist acts and build a plant for the manufacture of weapons and explosives.

Saqr pointed to legal aspects that may lead to the death penalty.

Ain Al-Hilweh has witnessing security tensions, assassinations and assassination attempts directed at a number of officials in different Palestinian and Islamic organisations that struggle for control over and influence in the camp.

Ain Al-Hilweh is the largest Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon; it is inhabited by more than 80,000 refugees.