Families of Iranian embassy blasts’ victims: al-Majed’s trial must be held in Lebanon

The families of the victims of the Iranian embassy blast expressed their gratitude to the Lebanese Armed Forces Command that exerted strong efforts leading to the arrest of Majed al-Majed accused of being behind the attack.

The victims’ families held a press conference where they called on the officials, justice ministry and the concerned judicial apparatuses to hold the trial of “the criminal in Lebanon where he committed his crimes and to refrain from handing him over to any foreign party.”  

In this context, sources revealed that the DNA tests carried out to verify Majed al-Majed's identity led to positive results and confirmed the suspect's identity.

For his part, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammed Jawad Zarif phone called his Lebanese ounterpart caretaker Minister Adnan Mansour to inform him that Iran has decided to send a team to Lebanon to take part in the investigation with Saudi suspect Majed al-Majed.

The Lebanese Armed Forces intelligence unit confirmed on Tuesday December 31, that it arrested Majed al-Majed, a prime al-Qaeda fugitive wanted in Saudi Arabia, a week ago in Beirut. 

Majed al-Majed, currently a prominent al-Qaeda leader and also the chief of the Abdallah Azzam Brigades is also wanted in the US over terrorism charges. He is said to have resided in the Ain el-Helwe Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon, until a few months when he reportedly left for Syria where he pledged support to the al-Nusra Front leader Abou Mhammad al-Joulani.

A double suicide attack targeted on Tuesday, November 19 the Iranian embassy in south Beirut’s Bir Hassan region, killing at least 23 people, wounding 146 and damaging buildings in the embassy compound.

The Abdullah Azzam brigades, a Lebanon-based al-Qaeda affiliate, said it was behind a double suicide attack on the Iranian embassy.