Lebanonwire.com | Jailed Lebanese warlord will soon be free: wife

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April 24, 2005

Jailed Lebanese warlord will soon be free: wife

BEIRUT - Jailed Lebanese former Christian warlord Samir Geagea will soon be free, a move that would help seal post-war national reconciliation, his wife said Sunday on the 11th anniversary of his arrest.

"The 'doctor' will soon be released from his jail," said Sitrida Geagea, drawing laud applause from hundreds of worshippers and politicians after a crowded mass in Beirut.

Last week, Lebanese MPs presented a proposed change to a post-war amnesty law to secure the release of Geagea, the only civil war militia leader to have been prosecuted and jailed.

"National reconciliation is the basis of Lebanon's revival and the building of a state of right, and the real translation of this reconciliation will be in the release of Samir Geagea and the return of General Michel Aoun," Sitrida Geagea said.

Aoun, a Christian general who ran a military government before being ousted and forced into exile in France in 1990 by a Syrian-led offensive, is now a key opposition figure leading the campaign to end Syria's dominance of Lebanon.

He has vowed to return home on May 7, after the last Syrian soldier is expected to have pulled out.

"The Lebanese people are living today the begining of the era of freedom and the collapse of the security regime which ruled political life for years under the control of the Syrian regime," Sitrida Geagea said.

Samir Geagea was jailed after being accused of carrying out a 1994 church bombing that killed 11 people north of Beirut. He was later found not guilty of the attack but remained in jail after being sentenced to death for other
cases, including the assassinations of rival Christian leaders.

His sentence was later commuted to life in prison. Amnesty International has accused the authorities of mistreating him in his isolated defence ministry prison cell.