Lebanon delays trial of Lebanese-American accused of collaborating with Israel
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Lebanon delays trial of Lebanese-American accused of collaborating with Israel

Amer Fakhoury was arrested after returning from the US to visit relatives; he had worked for the Israeli-backed South Lebanese Army during Lebanese civil war

By TOI staff and Agencies 21 November 2019, 6:49 pm 0 Edit
A former inmate of Khiam prison holds a mock gallows during a sit-in near a military court where an arrest warrant was issued for Lebanese-American Amer Fakhoury, who confessed he'd worked for Israel during its occupation of Lebanon for nearly two decades, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, September 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A former inmate of Khiam prison holds a mock gallows during a sit-in near a military court where an arrest warrant was issued for Lebanese-American Amer Fakhoury, who confessed he'd worked for Israel during its occupation of Lebanon for nearly two decades, in Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, September 17, 2019. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Thursday a court session in the case of a Lebanese-American accused of dealing with Israel had been postponed because of his illness.

The Lebanese news agency said Thursday’s session of Amer Fakhoury in the southern market town of Nabatiyeh was postponed until December 5.

Lebanon and Israel have been officially at war since Israel’s creation in 1948. Fakhoury had worked as a senior warden at the Khiam Prison in southern Lebanon that was run by an Israeli-backed militia, known as the South Lebanon Army.

He was detained after returning to his native Lebanon from the US in September and has been accused of engaging in the torture and killing of Lebanese citizens, The Daily Star reported.

Outside the courthouse in Nabatiyeh, a stronghold of the militant Hezbollah group, scores of people, including former Khiam prison detainees, gathered outside the building known as Palace of Justice.

“The Lebanese president himself and the [Lebanese] secretary of state were main advocates for people like Amer Fakhoury to return back safely to their country,” Fakhoury’s attorney Celine Atallah told The New Hampshire Union Leader late last month.

“His life is at stake. Every minute he stays there is dangerous for him. Americans should not allow any US citizen in the world to be treated this way.”

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