Geagea 'Wonders' Why Lahoud Isn't Issuing a Presidential Pardon
Naharnet: Samir Geagea has expressed bewilderment about the prolonged delay of a special parole to end his ongoing imprisonment since 10 years and three months at the Defense ministry jail in Yarze.
His complaint was disclosed by three legislators of parliament's Human Rights Committee, who visited him at his solitary confinement in the hilltop ministry compound east of Beirut on Saturday, An Nahar reported on Sunday.
"I am not requesting parole, but I am wondering why President Lahoud hasn't issued a special pardon decree since parliament has long been reluctant to vote on such a parole," Geagea was quoted as telling the committee by its spokesman Nimatallah Abi Nasr.
"My place is not here. I have accepted the national reconciliation" embodied in the 1989 Taif accord that halted Lebanon's 15-year civil war, said Geagea, the commander of the Lebanese Forces Christian militia during the last five years of the sectarian conflict.
"I have joined the national reconciliation bid and I wonder why haven't I been covered by the post-war general amnesty. I don't know why parliament has been so late in issuing a pardon ," Abi Nasr quoted Geagea as saying, according to An Nahar.
"Why don't you request a parole?" Geagea was asked by committee visitors, who included Legislators Atef Majdalani and Ghassan Mokhaiber in addition to Abi Nasr.
"I do not request, but I wonder why the president of the republic hasn't issued a special pardon on his own," Geagea was quoted by Abi Nasr as responding. "I want to stress that I am not requesting, but merely wondering.. As a matter of principle, I won't budge even if I stay 10 or 20 more years in jail."
Abi Nasr said the ground-level room to which Geagea was recently moved up from a three-floor underground dungeon that had no light or window where he spent 10 years was decent, with plenty of light and a big library for Geagea to read, although the chamber has no television set and no newspapers or magazines are allowed.
As for the underground cell of another prisoner, Girgis Khoury, 36, who is held in connection with the bombing of Notre Dame de Deliverance Church north of Beirut in 1994, Abi Nasr spoke of appalling maltreatment.
"Khoury is held in a dungeon 130 centimeters wide with an adjoining bath 110 centimeters wide. It has no sunshine, electricity, or fresh air and Khoury sleeps on a mattress on the floor. Even his lawyer is banned from seeing him," Abi Nasr said.
The lawyer, George Najm, a pro-Hizbullah parliament member, has said that he requested a permit to visit his client in jail, but was told: "you are now a deputy in Parliament and consequently you are not his attorney," according to Abi Nasr, who spoke at a news conference in parliament after visiting Geagea. Beirut, Updated 28 Nov 04, 10:55