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Family of Al-Qaeda suspect insists on his innocence
Ismail Mohammad al-Khatib, Al-Qaeda, and Majdel Anjar first became interchangeable in the Lebanese mind on September 22, 2004. On that date, then-Interior Minister Elias Murr made a televised announcement that he had captured the head of a suspected Al-Qaeda network in Lebanon. "Lebanon has never seen such a well-organized and dangerous network," Murr said at the time, as a mug shot of Khatib was flashed on the screen.Formerly known as a simple businessman from Majdel Anjar, Khatib was immediately and irreversibly branded the leader of the country's alleged local Al-Qaeda terror cell. Khatib was arrested alongside 10 other Lebanese, including two women, all of whom were related in some way to the alleged ringleader of a "planned attack" on the Italian and Ukrainian embassies in Beirut. The Italian Embassy's close proximity to the Grand Serail only magnified the weight of the accusation. Murr also claimed that several rocket-propelled grenades had been found in Majdel Anjar, a predominantly Sunni area of the western Bekaa Valley. The captured terrorist cell marked the first ever arrest of suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in Lebanon, according to Murr's public broadcast. One detainee, Ahmed Selim Mikati, was accused of plotting to attack the Ukrainian Embassy in Beirut's eastern suburb of Hazmieh. Murr further stated as fact that the "Majdel Anjar network" was also planning to attack Lebanese targets, including Beirut's Justice Palace, General Security headquarters, as well as military bases and police stations. "The network's role had been to enlist fundamentalists to carry out attacks against the coalition forces in Iraq," Murr said. Almost one year after Murr's historic announcement - and after a year of the Majdel Anjar detainees being shuffled from prison to prison without a single charge being laid - the detainees are now free after being released under a general amnesty law passed by Parliament in July. Originally drafted to secure the release of Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, the amnesty was broadened to include the Majdel Anjar detainees, in addition to dozens of Islamists from North Lebanon who had been jailed after deadly clashes with Lebanese troops in 1999-2000 in the village of Dinnieh. Khatib's relatives returned to Madjel Anjar. Most have resumed their former professions and kept a low profile since their release. However, a sense of restlessness lingers over the former detainees in Majdel Anjar, as "one of our brothers" was not part of the amnesty. Less than two weeks after his arrest, Defense Ministry officials announced that Ismail al-Khatib, 37, had died from a heart attack. Majdel Anjar's residents reacted to the announcement with unbridled fury, storming the town's General Security offices, blocking the Beirut-Damascus highway for several hours with burning tires, and demanding Murr's resignation. "They tortured him to death," said Ali al-Khatib, as he gingerly unwrapped newspaper clippings showing photos of his brother Ismail's dead body. In one photo, Ismail's eyes appear to be have been burnt by what Ali guesses were lit cigarettes. Another photo reveals Ismail's chest with patches of skin missing. A third reveals clear circular burn marks on his bare legs. "They completely mutilated his body and covered it with wax before handing it over to us and wouldn't let us wash the body before burial," said Ali. "But we insisted and saw why the government was preventing the washing." The Daily Star contacted Murr several times for a response to the claims made by the Khatib family, but Murr repeatedly refused to discuss the subject. Ali repeatedly lowers his voice each time one of Ismail's five young children enter the living area of the Khatib's family home. The entire family lives in this single humble dwelling - a typical village house with its few rooms divided among the various extended family members. Each room is decorated with religious ornaments. Framed prints of gold and black Koranic verses and references to the Prophet Mohammad adorn the walls. "That is the home of an Al-Qaeda leader?" Ali asked, pointing to the small section of the cramped house in which Ismail's widow and her five children live. "She never saw the photos of Ismail's tortured body," he said, referring to his late brother's wife. "We kept them away from her so she can live with a better memory of her husband." Perhaps offering a hint as to the cause behind their arrest is the fact all the Majdel Anjar detainees are Salafi Muslims. Salafi literally means "returning to the ancestors." For the Khatibs, this means following the practices of Prophet Mohammed and the Koran literally, dismissing any interpretation other than the original religious text. Accordingly, Ali said the most important principle to his brother was to fight in the name of God. "Ismail was a simple, pious man," Ali said. "His only crime is that he wanted to go fight in Iraq." Ismail disappeared two days before Murr's televised announcement of having broken the alleged Al-Qaeda cell. According to an eyewitness, Ismail was last seen leaving a telephone shop, when he was "ambushed" by army troops and police officers and driven away in a convoy of military vehicles. "We thought some gang kidnapped him since we couldn't reach him or find him anywhere," recalled Ali. "We called the police and the Defense Ministry but no one would tell us anything." Within 24 hours of Ismail's disappearance, Murr announced that the "leader of the Al-Qaeda network" in Lebanon had been caught. "Ismail would never plot or plan to do anything here in Lebanon," said Ali. "He was just heading to Iraq along with others who believed in jihad and had no contact with any terrorist groups or anything big like that." Ismail and several of his relatives were disgusted with the images coming out of Abu Ghraib prison of U.S. forces abusing Iraqis and decided it was their "duty" to go defend Islam and Arab pride. They wanted to fight the U.S.-led forces occupying Iraq since the overthrow of President Saddam Hussein. "Ismail felt it was his duty as a Muslim to go help other Muslims in their fight against invaders," said Ali. Ismail "never hid" this fact, he added, as it was never a source of shame for him. Ali pulls out several photos of Ismail, and compares them to the newspaper photos. "Ismail never had a long beard like you see in the newspaper photos," he said irritably. "It is a superimposed beard. They wanted to make him look like a terrorist as now the beard is the unmistakable mark of a terrorist." Posted by: Fred 2005-09-02 |
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