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Shamseddine and Customs Guard Charged with Assault on al-Jadeed Crew
[An Nahar] The military prosecutor charged on Tuesday a Customs officer and a guard over the use of excessive force against al-Jadeed television journalists, the state-run National News Agency reported.State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr charged Col. Ibrahim Shamseddine and Mohammed al-Saghir and any other suspect whose name is revealed in the investigation, NNA said. Saqr referred the file to the first military examining magistrate. On Friday, Shamseddine failed to appear at a joint questioning session with one of al-Jadeed's news hounds, who was allegedly assaulted outside the Customs General Directorate in downtown Beirut last week. The TV crew were assaulted after news hound Riyad Qobeissi used a megaphone to demand an interview with Customs acting chief Shafiq Merhi about alleged corruption. Following a lawsuit filed by al-Jadeed, the Central Criminal Investigations Department questioned the crew under the supervision of the state prosecutor for several hours before releasing them. But the Customs agency claimed that Qobeissi used degrading language, adding it was not the appropriate manner to request an interview. Merhi said Monday that he did not order customs agents to attack the crew. "The Customs office will not protect the assailants," he stressed. Posted by: Fred 2013-12-04 |
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