Al Mustaqbal daily said the alleged Syrian colonel Firas Ghannam, under arrest before the Lebanese Military Tribunal, is charged with attempting terrorism in Lebanon. He revealed the involvement of Syrian Intelligence in the destabilization of Lebanon after they withdrew from the country in 2005.
The daily pointed out that Ghanam said, while being examined, that the Syrian officer Georges Salloum ordered him to detonate bombs in the Martyrs Square on the eve of the first commemoration of former Premier Rafic Hariris assassination on February 14, 2006. He added that he didnt want to execute the order but only agreed in order to move out from Syria through Lebanon with the Tunisian citizen Mounir Hilal. They were both arrested 3 days prior to the commemoration on the Lebanese-Syrian borders in Bekaa with forged identity card and a hand grenade. The report said Ghannam also testified to "relations" he had with Shehab Qaddour, better known by the code name of Abu Hureira, a ranking official of the Fatah al-Islam terrorist group who was killed in a clash with security forces in the northern city of Tripoli more than a year ago.
The military tribunal, chaired by Brig. Gen. Nizar Khalil, concluded its interrogations of Ghannam and Hilal on Friday. It is scheduled to convene on Feb. 20 to debrief witness Omar .
Continued on Page 47
Syrian leaders have recommended reforming laws under which criminals convicted of so-called honour crimes get lenient sentences.
The commission for family affairs a government body proposed the change last week at the end of a state-sponsored forum on honour crimes, the first of its kind in Syria. More than 100 civic, religious and government leaders as well as legal experts attended the conference in Damascus, which also drew support from the ministry of justice and the ministry of religious endowments.
Under Syrian law, men who catch a female family member engaging in adultery or other illegitimate sexual acts, or even in a suspicious state, are exempted from the standard punishments for murder and assault. Those convicted of murders deemed to be honour killings face only six months to a year in prison.
The conference called for the honour crime exemption to be eliminated from the statute books, so that individuals convicted of murder in honour-related crimes would face a minimum of 15 years in prison.
Article 548 gives permission for half of the [Syrian] people to commit murder, said family affairs commission chair Simwa Astor. We want to eliminate this article for the sake of the sovereignty of the law, and to protect human beings.
Womens groups estimate that close to 300 so-called honour killings are committed every year, most in rural communities.
Brigadier Ali Alush, a senior official in the interior ministry, told the conference that honour crimes have accounted for seven per cent of homicides so far in 2008. But he acknowledged that the figure was probably an understatement because such crimes often go unreported.
The problem with these crimes is not the numbers, but rather the deed itself, said Raghda al-Ahmed, vice-president of the womens general union. Even if there is only one homicide, it remains a source of shame in our history.
Womens and human rights advocates have fought for many years for the honour crimes law to be changed.
The official backing given by the conference raised hopes that the recommendations could influence a change in a law that womens groups say decriminalises violent crimes against women.
Syrias chief Muslim cleric or Grand Mufti, Sheikh Ahmed Badr Hassoun, last year called for the law to be amended after parliament reportedly stalled on legislation that would have changed the penal code.
In 2006, human rights activists, intellectuals and media outlets also participated in a campaign to reform the laws.
Conference participants tried to pressure members of parliament invited to the event to change the penalties for this kind of crime.
But not all politicians favour reform.
Ghalib Inaiz, a member of the parliaments legislative committee, told the conference that the honour crime law is derived from Islamic sharia, and we cannot change it.
Another member of parliament, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he would not support changes to the law, because a person cannot give up his honour, and he should receive a commuted sentence if he kills one of his relatives if he catches them in the act.
But another legislator, Mohammed Habash, who is an expert on Islam, said this law is not based on Islam and has become a butchers knife to kill people in the name of honour.
Ahmed Talib, a Shia sheikh from Lebanon who attended the conference, blamed honour crimes on what he called the dominant culture, in other words local tradition rather than religious tenets.
Men grow up [thinking] they are above their wives, mothers, daughters and sisters. That is the primary reason for the prevalence of such crimes, he said.
Huda al-Himsi, a member of parliament who sits on the family affairs commission, said reforming the law would not automatically change the customs and traditions which sanction honour crimes.
I am not optimistic, she said. Even if we abolish Article 548, we will not be able to stop honour crimes.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
