| Former warlord to leave
Lebanon after prison release BEIRUT, Lebanon
- Samir Geagea, the pardoned leader of a wartime Christian militia in Lebanon who has been
serving a life sentence in jail since 1994, is expected to be freed within days and
immediately leave the country.
The exact date of the Lebanese Forces leader's release from his isolated Beirut prison
cell is not yet known, although it is not likely to be before Sunday, a judicial source
said.
Geagea plans to leave the country with his wife Sitrida on Tuesday for Europe where he
will rest and undergo medical tests, Lebanese Forces MP Georges Adwane told private
television LBC.
He plans to meet Lebanese officials and give a televised address at the airport before his
departure.
An amnesty law pardoning Geagea was approved by parliament on Monday and published in the
official gazette on Thursday.
Geagea, 53, is the only former warlord from the 1975-1990 civil war ever jailed for his
alleged crimes.
He was cleared of a 1994 bomb attack on a church that left 11 dead but handed four death
sentences, all later commuted to life imprisonment, for offences during the war, notably
the 1987 killing of prime minister Rashid Karameh. |
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