13 November 2013

BEIRUT: Head of the Arab Democratic Party Ali Eid failed Tuesday to show up for questioning by the Military Tribunal, which is investigating whether he helped a Tripoli bombing suspect flee to Syria.

Eids lawyer, Hiam Eid, attended the session and presented a request urging the court to revoke a search warrant against Eid issued by Military Prosecutor Saqr Saqr. Hiam, who is also Eids sister, hinted that Eid was in poor health and requested on his behalf to have the charges dropped. Hiam said Eid did not skip his court date but rather she represented him in absentia.

My presence here today means that Eid was not absent from the session, Hiam told The Daily Star outside the Beirut Military Tribunal.

Eid was ordered to appear in court Tuesday over his alleged involvement in aiding Ahmad Merhi a key suspect in the deadly Tripoli bombings flee to Syria. But Eid, a leader in the Alawite community, refused to appear before the court, saying that the accusations against him were fabricated by the Internal Security Forces Information Branch. Eid, who is an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, charged that his Alawite sect was being deliberately targeted.

Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghayda, who presided over the session, referred Eids request to Saqr, a judicial source said.

If Saqr turned down her clients request, Hiam said she would file an appeal. She also suggested that her brother be interrogated at his house because he couldnt make it to the court for health reasons.

In late August, two car bombings outside mosques in Tripoli killed at least 47 people and wounded hundreds more. Last week, security forces raided Eids home in the northern village of Hikr al-Daheri near the Syrian border, but he was not found.

Hiam also requested the release of Eids driver, Ahmad Mohammad Ali, charged with smuggling Merhi across the border into Syria allegedly on Eids orders. A judicial source said Saqr would examine Hiams requests and offer his opinions to Abu Ghayda, who would make the ultimate decision.

Hiam is also representing another suspect in the Tripoli bombings, Shehadeh Shdoud, who Abu Ghayda questioned Tuesday. Shdoud, a Lebanese national, was charged last week with smuggling another suspect in the bombing, Syrian Sukaina Ismail, from Lebanon to Syria.

Ismail was charged with involvement in terrorist acts and escorting individuals who transported the two rigged cars from Syria to Lebanon.

The Future bloc of former Prime Minister Saad Hariri called on state agencies to continue investigations into the Tripoli explosions and to arrest those involved in the crime regardless of their ranking.

This is so that no side will be above the law, and so that the criminal will be punished for his crime, the bloc said in a statement after its weekly meeting at Hariris Downtown Beirut residence.

The bloc asked that the case be transferred to the Justice Council and for the implementation of a strict and serious security plan in Tripoli that kept no illegitimate arms in the city.

The bloc balked at threats and intimidation, saying they reflected the criminal nature of those who make them and confirmed their involvement in Tripolis terrorist crime.

Rifaat Eid, Ali Eids son, accused the Information Branch and other security agencies over the weekend of framing his father. He said Alis confessions were made under torture.

The Information Branch shed our blood and therefore we regard the shedding of their blood as permissible, he told a news conference at his office in Tripoli, describing the police branch as an agent in Lebanon.

Copyright The Daily Star 2013.