Lebanon sentences 121 more for "collaboration" with “Israel”

A Beirut military court handed down 121 sentences overnight against Lebanese accused of assisting “Israel” during its 22-year occupation, including two people who each received 10 years in prison, a judicial source said Sunday.

One of the Lebanese to receive a 10-year sentence was found guilty of killing and injuring Syrian workers by bombing them as a member of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), “Israel's” proxy militia during the occupation.

The other received 10 years for collaboration with "enemy" intelligence services, the source said.

Most of the Lebanese convicted overnight received one year in prison and fines of 400,000 Lebanese pounds (267 dollars) for joining the SLA.

Three women each received three weeks in prison and fines of one million pounds (667 dollars) for entering “Israel”, while two other women were convicted in absentia for the same crime and sentenced to one year in prison and a 200,000-pound (133-dollar) fine.

One defendant was found not guilty and five others, accused of collaborating with “Israeli” intelligence, were released for having also assisted the Lebanese services.

The convictions bring to 2,162 the number of sentences handed down since June 5, just two weeks after “Israel's” withdrawal, when Lebanon began trying more than 2,500 Lebanese accused of collaboration.

Eleven people have been sentenced to death and three others to life in prison, but all in absentia.

Hezbollah, which spearheaded anti-”Israeli” operations during the occupation, has frequently criticized the sentences as too light.

AFP 14-1-2001