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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||
| Syria issues final summons to ex-VP “traitor” | ||
| 2006-05-08 | ||
| DAMASCUS - Syria has issued a final summons for former vice president Abdel Halim Khaddam, branded a traitor by Damascus and currently living in exile in France, to appear in court. Khaddam and 24 other family members including his wife Najat Marqabi have been called to appear in court in his hometown of Banias in northwestern Syria in June after they failed to show up to a hearing last month. “As you didn’t attend the session on April 24, we ask you to come to the one on June 12, otherwise the judgment will be made,” said a government announcement in the Tishrin daily.
Khaddam, who oversaw Syria’s domination of neighbouring Lebanon for 25 years, but quit as vice president last year and left for Paris, has denied any wrongdoing. He issued a statement denying he had “acquired public land on the seafront or took out loans from Syrian banks that he has not repaid” but without saying whether he would appear in court. In addition to the civil court case, Khaddam has also been indicted on seven charges by a military court, including conspiracy and attempts to usurp power and to stir hostility against Damascus. Khaddam, who resigned last June to become a Paris-based opposition leader, was charged with “plotting conspiracies to push a foreign country to show its hostility toward Syria,” according to the charge sheet. The offense is punishable with a life prison sentence and hard labour. Khaddam is also accused of “having published articles and works and delivered speeches without the Syrian government’s approval.” In January, Khaddam charged that Syrian agents implicated by a UN probe into the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri could not have acted without Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s approval. The Damascus regime in return accused Khaddam of treason, with parliament passing a motion calling for him to be brought to justice and tried for high treason. Khaddam and other opposition figures have announced the formation of a group seeking regime change in Syria by peaceful means, but the domestic opposition has said it does not want to work with the new group.
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| Posted by:Steve White |