Death Sentences Proposed for 5 Shamas Brothers in the Ziads” Crime
Examining Magistrate Malik Abla proposed the death sentence against five brothers from the Shamas family, the killers of 12-year-old Ziad Ghandour and his neighbor Ziad Qabalan, 25.
Judge Abla also proposed sentencing Mustafa al-Saaidi, Ayman Safwan, Wissam Arabi and Saeb al-Daqdouqi to life imprisonment with hard labor for "destroying evidence," while brothers Mohammad, Shehadeh, Abdullah, Abbas and Ali Shamas remain at large.
The charge sheet also moved against Hanan Atwi, Abeer Qabalan, Hassan Hazimeh, Hana Ismail, Rabih Huweili, sentencing them for up to three years in prison for hiding suspect Ali Shamas.
The bodies of the two Ziads were found near the town of Jadra, southeast of Beirut April 26, 2007, three days after being kidnapped from their car.
The crime was apparently in retaliation for the murder of Adnan Shamas, blamed by the Shamas family on Ziad Ghandour”s father, Mounir, and Ziad Qabalan.
Adnan Shamas was killed in street clashes in January 2007.