Head of the Progressive Socialist Party MP Walid Jumblatt said that “the verdict issued by the Military Court against former Information Minister Michel Samaha legalizes assassinations and terrorist acts.”
Jumblatt made his remarks via his Twitter account; a day after the Military Court sentenced Samaha to four and a half years in prison, stripping him of all civil rights.
The verdict also stipulates that his years of detention would be counted from the day he was incarcerated, leaving him to serve the remaining 11 months in prison according to Samaha’s defense attorney.
Samaha, who had close ties with the Syrian regime, was arrested in August 2012 for plotting attacks in Lebanon along with two Syrian officials.
His trial started in June 2013 but had been repeatedly postponed for failing to summon Ali Mamlouk and a Syrian colonel identified only by his first name, Adnan, the cases of whom were included in Samaha’s trial.