South Lebanon’s prosecutor raises death penalty against Mohammed Darrar Jammo’s wife

Prosecutor of South Lebanon Judge Samih al-Hajj raised on Monday the death penalty charge against the wife of Mohammed Darrar Jammo, Siham, her brother, and her nephew, in accordance with articles 549, 219, and 72 of the Lebanese law that stipulates death penalty.    
Judge al-Hajj released Jammo’s daughter Fatima since proof of her involvement in the assassination was not found.                    

On Tuesday the 23rd of July, Siham Younes, the wife of pro-government Syrian journalist Mohammad Darrar Jammo, was handed over to the Lebanese Armed Forces Intelligence Bureau for suspicion of being involved in the assassination of her husband.                      

Syrian authorities stressed they were not responsible for the handover, adding that she was trying to enter the Lebanese territories through the Al-Arida border crossing where the General Security Department arrested her.

The Syrian pro-government figure was killed by gunmen at his home in southern Lebanon on Wednesday the 17th of July, shooting him nearly 30 times in the latest sign of Syria's civil war spilling over into its smaller neighbor.            

Mohammed Darrar Jammo was gunned down in the coastal town of Sarafand, a stronghold of Hezbollah. Resentment against the Shiite militant group has grown over its open participation in the Syrian conflict on the side of President Bashar Assad's forces.    

Assassinations of politicians, army officers and journalists who support Assad's regime are not uncommon in Syria, but the killing of a well-known Syrian in Lebanon is rare. It shook the fiercely pro-Syrian town in Lebanon's south, largely bypassed by clashes and bombings that have plagued other areas.
                                     
Violence linked to Syria's civil war is increasingly washing across Lebanon, threatening to unleash large-scale fighting. On Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a Hezbollah convoy near the Syrian border, and last week a car bomb in south Beirut wounded 53 people in the heart of the group's bastion of support.                     

The attacks point to Hezbollah's growing vulnerability over its participation in the war in Syria. The group's involvement in the fighting there has prompted warnings from Syrian rebel groups, who have threatened to retaliate on Hezbollah's home turf.