Head of Lebanon’s Military Tribunal Brigadier General Hussein Abdullah announced on Friday he was resigning from his post, few days after acquitting Israeli collaborator Amer Fakhoury and a day after US airlifted the notorious collaborator outside Lebanon in a step that considered violation of the Lebanese sovereignty.
“Out of respect for my oath and the honorary military, I am resigning from the presidency of the military court in which the application of the law equals the escape of a client, the pain of captives and the treason of a judge,” Abdullah said on Friday.
He was referring to his decision to drop charges against Fakhoury including murder and torture when he was a commander in the so-called South Lebanon Army (SLA) – a proxy militia backed by Israeli occupation during the 1982-2000 occupation of Lebanon.
Abdullah’s Monday decision to acquit Fakhoury, citing the expiry of statute of limitations, drew local outrage with a number of activists, former prisoners at Israeli jails and other citizens organized a protest near the military court.
Fakhoury oversaw the torture of thousands at the Khiam Prison in the 1980s and 1990s and was personally involved in the murder of several detainees, earning him the nickname “Butcher of Khiam.”
The case of Fakhoury didn’t stop here. After his immediate release on Monday, he was transferred to the US Embassy in Awkar, and then on Thursday he was airlifted by a helicopter outside Lebanon, in a move defying a travel ban which was issued against the collaborator on Tuesday.
US President Donald Trump, later on Thursday, announced that Fakhoury was on his way to the United States.
After Lebanon’s liberation in May 2000, Fakhoury, along many other Israeli collaborators, fled Lebanon to the US. He was arrested in September 2019, upon his arrival at Beirut International Airport.
Source: Al-Manar English Website
