Lebanese Judiciary Sentences Bashir Gemayel’s Killers to Death

Lebanese policemen are seen in front of a court building in Beirut, Lebanon during the verdict in Gemayel’s assassination case October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi
Lebanese policemen are seen in front of a court building in Beirut, Lebanon during the verdict in Gemayel’s assassination case October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi
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Lebanese Judiciary Sentences Bashir Gemayel’s Killers to Death

Lebanese policemen are seen in front of a court building in Beirut, Lebanon during the verdict in Gemayel’s assassination case October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi
Lebanese policemen are seen in front of a court building in Beirut, Lebanon during the verdict in Gemayel’s assassination case October 20, 2017. REUTERS/Jamal Saidi

The Lebanese judiciary has sentenced to death in absentia former official in the Syrian Socialist National Party Nabil Alam and party member Habib Shartouni in the assassination of President-elect Bashir Gemayel 35 years ago.

As the Judicial Council went into session on Friday, members of the Syrian Socialist National Party held a protest amid tight security measures. The demonstrators hoisted posters of Shartouni and shouted slogans in his support outside the Justice Palace.

After the sentence was announced, Kataeb Party and Lebanese Forces members gathered to celebrate at Sassine Square, in Beirut’s Achrafieh district where Gemayel was killed in a bomb explosion on September 14, 1982 only 20 days after his election as president.

The bomb went off at Kataeb’s headquarters, leaving another 23 people dead.

Shartouni had confessed to planting and detonating the bomb and was given 24 hours to turn himself in when the trial was opened in November 2016. But he did not appear before the court and was tried in absentia.

He is believed to be living in Syria, having escaped prison in October 1990 after Syrian troops stormed east Beirut and brought down the government that was led by Gen. Michel Aoun (Lebanon’s current president).

In 2014, media reports said Alam had died. But this week, an interview for Shartouni was published in the local Al-Akhbar newspaper, which described him as a “hero.”

In its verdict, the judicial council said the two suspects carried out an act of terrorism and played a part in hampering attempts to stabilize the country.

“Finally, the verdict was released in the name of the Lebanese people after 35 years of working for (justice) for Bashir and his friends,” Solange Gemayel, Bachir’s widow, said after the court’s decision.

Gemayel thanked the council and said the decision allowed the state to regain its authority and the Lebanese peoples’ belief in constitutional institutions.



Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
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Germany Hands Syrian Doctor Life for Torturing Assad Critics

Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)
Syrian doctor Alaa M., accused of crimes against humanity, arrives for his judgment in the security room of the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 16 June 2025. (EPA)

A Syrian doctor who had practiced in Germany was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Monday for crimes against humanity and war crimes after he was found guilty of torturing dissidents in Syria.

The 40-year-old, identified only as Alaa M. in accordance with German privacy laws, was found guilty of killing two people and torturing another eight during his time working in Syria as a doctor at a military hospital and detention center in Homs in 2011 and 2012.

The court said his crimes were part of a systematic attack against people protesting against then-President Bashar al-Assad that precipitated the country's civil war.

Assad was toppled in December. His government denied it tortured prisoners.

Alaa M. arrived in Germany in 2015, after fleeing to Germany among a large influx of Syrian refugees, and became one of roughly 10,000 Syrian medics who helped ease acute staff shortages in the country's healthcare system.

He was arrested in June 2020, and was handed a life sentence without parole, the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt said in a statement.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty, saying he was the target of a conspiracy.

German prosecutors have used universal jurisdiction laws that allow them to seek trials for suspects in crimes against humanity committed anywhere in the world.

They have targeted several former Syrian officials in similar cases in recent years.

The plaintiffs were supported by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

ECCHR lawyer Patrick Kroker called Monday's ruling "a further step towards a comprehensive reckoning with Assad's crimes".

Judges found that the doctor caused "considerable physical suffering" as a result of the torture inflicted on his victims, which included serious beatings, mistreating wounds and inflicting serious injury to the genitals of two prisoners, one of whom was a teenage boy.

Two patients died after he gave them lethal medication, the court statement said.

Monday's ruling can be appealed.