The Lebanese Army said on Sunday that Toufiq Hindi, one of the leading anti-Syrian Christian activists arrested this past week, had confessed to establishing contact with an Israeli official, said reports.
The army also took the unprecedented step of making available to all television stations a video of the interrogation in which State Prosecutor Adnan Addoum is seen questioning Hindi, reported the Daily Star. Despite the poor sound quality of the videotape, it appeared to confirm the charges contained in the statement.
According to the amended version of the statement, Hindi confessed that he traveled to Paris in April, where he contacted some old banned Lebanese Forces (LF) friends, including Joseph Jbeili and Ghassan Touma.
Hindi said that while in Paris he purchased a SIM card for a mobile telephone, whose number he gave to Touma.
Hindi was allegedly told by Touma that he should expect a phone call from Odid Zaray, the information adviser to Uri Lubrani, who coordinated Israeli activities in Lebanon during the occupation, according to the paper.
Hindi was reportedly told that Zaray would give him instructions concerning the situation in Lebanon and Israel’s response.
The initial army statement said Zaray had contacted Hindi, while the amended version claimed Hindi made the contact.
The statement said that Hindi’s contact with Zaray coincided with the opening meeting of the Qornet Shehwan Gathering in May.
Zaray told Hindi that it was important to launch anti-Syrian protests which would coincide with an Israeli propaganda campaign, according to the paper.
Hindi confessed that the Israeli request was to pressure Syria to secure calm on Lebanon’s border with Israel.
Addoum said he was determined to pursue Hindi’s confessions because he was convinced “this could not be the only official contact between Israel and some Lebanese groups.”
Addoum said he had evidence of other contacts between Lebanon and Israel, either directly or via embassies here or other channels abroad. He also said that the Lebanese individuals through which the contacts were made belonged to various professional or political groups.
Hindi was arrested Tuesday, along with members of other parties in the country's Christian opposition which reject Syrian dominance over the country.
Security services have detained up to 250 anti-Syrian activists from three Christian groups since the crackdown started Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Maronite patriarch, Nasrallah Sfeir, on Sunday scoffed at accusations that Christian anti-Syrian groups were plotting to partition the country, the official claim used by security services to justify mass arrests this past week.
“How will people receive the news about a plot to partition the country when (this plot) could not be implemented by those accused when they had arms and capabilities?” Sfeir asked.
“They could not implement it back then,” he added, “so how could they now when they are without arms and when they are increasingly divided?”
Health Minister Suleiman Franjieh described the cabinet’s reaction to the arrests as “wise,” adding the detentions were justified if the information of security bodies was accurate, the paper quoted him as saying.
“Arrests would be disastrous if the information is inaccurate,” Franjieh said.
“If what happened was not justified, we would certainly be against it.”
Minister of State Pierre Helou, who also visited the patriarch, said he was not convinced that an attempted coup d’etat had been crushed and added that the timing of arrests was “poor,” according to the paper.
“How can this happen,” he asked, “without the knowledge of the justice minister, the premier and the cabinet members?”
On Sunday, the LF politburo in the United States urged the government “to halt oppression, accept opposition and release all political prisoners, including former LF leader Samir Geagea.”
In a statement, the politburo said the latest cabinet session showed that “there is no convincing security or legal justification for the arrests and oppressive practices that took place recently or the government would have openly endorsed what the security bodies did.”
Ex-army commander Michel Aoun ridiculed last week’s arrests of Free Patriotic Movement members, describing charges that they intended to conspire against the state as “laughable.”
Aoun said he was ready to answer “all” charges against him, and challenged the president, the cabinet, and the speaker to a live broadcast of a round-table discussion, the paper said - Albawaba.com
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