Prosecutor Demands Death for Abssi, 4 Syrians

 

The leader of the extremist Fatah Islam group and four Syrians were formally charged Tuesday with bus bombings last year that killed three people and wounded 20 others, judicial officials said. 

The five were charged with terrorism and undermining the country”s security, the officials said. Lebanon”s top military magistrate, Rashid Mezher, sought the death penalty for all of them.

 

Two remain at large, including Fatah Islam leader Shaker Youssef al-Absi.

 

The Feb. 13, 2007, bombings, minutes apart on two commuter buses near Beirut, stunned Lebanon and heightened a sense of anxiety amid an ongoing political crisis and tensions with Syria. The attack also raised awareness of Fatah Islam, an al-Qaida-inspired group that was little known until that attack.

 

Several months later, heavy fighting erupted between the Lebanese army and hundreds of Fatah Islam militants holed up in the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp near Tripoli, a northern Lebanese city. The three-month battle that ensued was Lebanon”s worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

 

In September, the army overran Nahr el-Bared, arresting many of the militant group”s fighters.

 

The four Syrians charged include ringleader Mustafa Sayou, who was detained days after the bus attacks, according to the judicial officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to talk to the media.

 

The other three were identified as Kamal Naasan, Yasser al-Shuqairi and Mubarak al-Naasan but it was not known which one of them remained at large.

 

Al-Absi is a Palestinian who is believed to carry a Jordanian passport.

 

Fatah Islam is believed to be comprised of Muslim militants of various nationalities who set up base in Nahr el-Bared in late 2006.

 

The government has said that about 222 militants were killed in the Nahr el-Bared fighting and more than 200 were arrested, while a total of 169 Lebanese soldiers died. Palestinian officials have said that 47 Palestinian civilians in the camp also died.

 

The camp”s estimated 30,000 residents had fled in the first week of fighting, mostly to the nearby Beddawi camp. In recent weeks, hundreds of them have returned home.