LBCI exclusive: ISF information division withholds Samaha-Sayyed dialogue

Major General accompanied former Minister Michel Samaha in his car that was laden with 24 explosives from the Sheraton Hotel all the way to outskirts od Ashrafieh. However, so far there are no signs proving that Sayyed knew the explosives were in the car.          

Well-informed sources that the fact that Sayyed was in Samaha's car on the day the latter smuggled the explosives into Lebanon is proven by investigations. In fact, the ISF's Information Division obtained a recording of a conversation between Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed and former Minister Michel Samaha during their trip from Damascus to Beirut in Samaha’s car; the tape was recorded by a device found in the car transporting the explosives. It turned out Samaha put this device in his car to record all the dialogues that take place inside of it along with the exact date and time of their occurence.          

The sources pointed out that the Division is analyzing the 3-hour dialogue between Samaha and Sayyed and a part of it was attached to the file sent to the Military Court to prove that Sayyed was with Samaha during the smuggling operation. State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr called on the Information Division to discharge the entire dialogue and to send it to him gradually in order to reveal whether Sayyed knew about the explosives or not.              

In this regard, security sources said that it began to suspect that Maj. Gen. Sayyed had a role in the Samaha - Mamlouk plot ever since Sayyed rushed to Samaha's house in Ashrafieh the minute he was arrested and defended him strongly. Sources quoted eye witnesses from Damascus and from the Masnaa border crossing as saying that Sayyed accompanied Samaha on his way back from Syria. Security apparatasuses later confirmed this information when they managed to breach Sayyed's security apparatus. However, still in need of a sensory evidence, they searched in the telecommunication data of Samaha's three mobile phones and in the conversations Samaha had recorded since 2010. Finally, they discovered the device in Samaha's car and heard the dialogue with Sayyed.                

According to judicial-military sources, Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed will not be summoned this week to appear before Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghida who is still following up on the issue. Sayyed's comment:                 

Later on, the media office of Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed issued a statement considering that the ISF Information Division's confession that it still has the recordings in the case of Samaha, came as a response to Samaha's warnings during the press conference he held yesterday. Sayyed warned Brigadier General Wissam el-Hassan of withholding or hiding any recording under penalty of prosecution.