Pilot Hanna”s Killer Freed on Bail
Less than a year after Mustafa Hassan Muqdim shot and killed army helicopter pilot Samer Hanna "accidentally," the military court released him on LL 10 million bail.
The daily An Nahar said that despite the objection from Judge Saqr Saqr, the military court under President Judge Brig. Gen. Nizar Khalil agreed on Tuesday to release Muqdim, 23, accused of "unintentionally killing" Hanna Aug. 28, 2008 when he mistook the Lebanese army helicopter Hanna was flying for an Israeli aircraft.
An Nahar said Muqdim”s release drew criticism, mainly from MP Butros Harb, the Hanna family”s attorney.
Harb described Muqdim”s freedom as a "scandal."
"What has happened is awkward, particularly since it (release) took place less than a year after the killing of the officer," Harb told An Nahar.
Muqdim”s release is "neither justified by tradition nor by the law," Harb stressed, vowing to follow up on the issue "which has led the court to order the release of a suspect who bluntly admitted to the shooting of officer Samer Hanna."
Muqdim, who is a member of Hizbullah”s military wing, told the court on Friday that he was in a room when he heard a chopper and gunshots in Sujud hills in southern Lebanon on Aug. 28, 2008.
He said he went outside thinking the helicopter was Israeli and fired five rounds from his Kalashnikov rifle from a distance of 250-300 meters.
"Then I saw people heading towards the helicopter and I stopped shooting," the man told the 10-minute hearing. "We were three in the room when the chopper came. My friends did not take part in the shooting because they didn”t have guns."
Muqadim said he didn”t see the Lebanese flag on the chopper and the sun”s rays possibly blurred his vision.