By Karine Raad

BEIRUT - Following Monday's historic parliamentary session, President Emile Lahoud signed two amnesty bills Tuesday granting freedom to Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and ensuring the release of Islamists involved in the deadly Dinnieh clashes of early 2000.

But Lahoud expressed reservations over the signing of the bills, saying amnesty should apply to other similar cases to ensure all Lebanese are treated fairly.

The president said he hoped Parliament would establish standards for a more comprehensive and balanced amnesty law in the future.

Lahoud's signatures came soon after Speaker Nabih Berri approved the bills and referred them to former Prime Minister Najib Mikati for signing.

In accordance with legal procedures, the bills should be formally signed into law by Lahoud then published in the official gazette before the prisoners are released.

Consequently, Geagea and dozens of Islamists jailed following the Dinnieh clashes with the Lebanese Army are expected to be freed by the end of this week.

Other detainees addressed in the bill include the so-called Majdal Anjar suspects involved in an alleged plot to blow up the Italian Embassy in Beirut last year.

As parts of the country rejoiced "the first step toward national reconciliation," the Karami family received the news with bitterness.

Among the reasons for Geagea's arrest in 1994 was the engineering of the 1987 mid-air assassination of then-Premier Rashid Karami, brother of former Premier Omar Karami.

The Karami family charged "the so-called patriots" with selling the blood of a martyr "cheaply" to serve their political and parliamentary interests.

In an interview with As-Safir published Tuesday, Omar Karami said: "Even if the Karamis agreed Geagea's imprisonment was fabricated by the security apparatus, the move is still a challenge to the integrity and independence of the judiciary."

Karami insisted Geagea had murdered his brother, and stressed the "amnesty will not change this fact."

He blamed Parliament for restoring civic rights to a murderer as if he had committed no crime.

Asked if the Karami family will politically, judicially or socially retaliate to Parliament's decision, Karami ruled out any such move, but expressed his family's discontent, questioning the possible repercussions of such a decision in the future.

The former premier decried the so-called national reconciliation and slammed Berri, saying "it is not the first time Berri has betrayed us and we will not forgive him."

Asked if the Karami family will ask the Geagea family, the Lebanese Forces or the Lebanese authorities for compensation, Karami said his family never asked for anything, but once suggested Geagea's retrial, a demand which was never met.

"Anyway, we hope they suffer the way we did," Karami said, expressing his gratitude for former Premier Salim Hoss's support.

Hoss had slammed Parliament's decision on Monday, decrying Geagea's release as "illogical but expected given the policy of bargains that rules the country's political life."

As Parliament convened Monday, many of Omar Karami's supporters visited Rashid Karami's tomb in the Bab al-Raml cemetery where they laid red roses and held prayers for the soul of the deceased.

Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyya's politburo denounced Parliament's decision, describing it as "a sociopolitical settlement that encompassed the guilty as well as the innocent." In a statement, the politburo reiterated its calls for the fair treatment of those innocent youths unjustly accused and imprisoned for alleged acts of terrorism, extremism and endangering state security.- Daily Star