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Lebanese Source to Asharq Al-Awsat: Ziad Itani’s Release Not Linked to Political Considerations

Lebanese actor and writer Ziad Itani after his release from detention on Tuesday. (AFP)
Lebanese actor and writer Ziad Itani after his release from detention on Tuesday. (AFP)
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Lebanese Source to Asharq Al-Awsat: Ziad Itani’s Release Not Linked to Political Considerations

Lebanese actor and writer Ziad Itani after his release from detention on Tuesday. (AFP)
Lebanese actor and writer Ziad Itani after his release from detention on Tuesday. (AFP)

Lebanese actor and writer Ziad Itani was released from custody on Tuesday after 112 days in detention where he was held on a false accusation of collaborating with Israel.

A judicial source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the decision to release Itani proved that justice protects all Lebanese citizens.

“The file was handled away from any political considerations and according to judicial data and new evidence made available to the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau,” the source said.

He added that the judiciary completed its mission by adjusting the direction of the case to remove injustice against Itani.

The actor’s release coincided with the arrest of those accused of faking conversations between him and an alleged Israeli agent.

Itani was arrested in November by the State Security Directorate General on charges of collaborating and communicating with Israel. Evidence later emerged that he fell victim to a plot hatched by Suzan Hajj, the former head of the Lebanese Anti-Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Bureau.

A source close to the investigation earlier this month said Hajj was suspected of having framed Itani to seek revenge after he shed light on her liking a controversial post on Twitter last year, after which she was demoted.

On Tuesday, First Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghida issued an arrest warrant against Hajj.

Itani was released after Abu Ghida concluded a three-hour interrogation of Hajj at the Military Tribunal, in the presence of her lawyer, Rashid Derbas.

Following the interrogation, Derbas said his client denied all accusations leveled against her, noting the lack of definitive evidence that condemns her.

Shortly upon his release, Itani praised President Michel Aoun, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq for pursuing his release.

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Guterres: Sudan's Warring Forces are Escalating Attacks and Outsiders are Fueling the Fire

Members of Sudan's security forces take part in the opening ceremony of a headquarter facility in the army-controlled Port Sudan, where the government loyal to the army is based on the Red Sea coast, on October 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Members of Sudan's security forces take part in the opening ceremony of a headquarter facility in the army-controlled Port Sudan, where the government loyal to the army is based on the Red Sea coast, on October 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
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Guterres: Sudan's Warring Forces are Escalating Attacks and Outsiders are Fueling the Fire

Members of Sudan's security forces take part in the opening ceremony of a headquarter facility in the army-controlled Port Sudan, where the government loyal to the army is based on the Red Sea coast, on October 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)
Members of Sudan's security forces take part in the opening ceremony of a headquarter facility in the army-controlled Port Sudan, where the government loyal to the army is based on the Red Sea coast, on October 28, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

Sudan’s warring military and paramilitary forces are escalating attacks with outside powers “fueling the fire,” which is intensifying the nightmare of hunger and disease for millions, the United Nations chief said Monday.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned the UN Security Council that the 18-month war faces the serious possibility of “igniting regional instability from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa to the Red Sea.”
In a grim report, Guterres said the Sudanese people are living through numerous “nightmares” – from killings and “unspeakable atrocities” including widespread rapes to fast-spreading diseases, mass ethnic violence, and 750,000 people facing “catastrophic food insecurity” and famine conditions in North Darfur displacement sites.
He singled out “ shocking reports of mass killings and sexual violence ” in villages in east-central Gezira province in recent days. The UN and a doctors’ group said paramilitary fighters ran riot in the region in a multi-day attack that killed more than 120 people in one town.
Sudan plunged into conflict in mid-April 2023, when long-simmering tensions between its military and paramilitary leaders broke out in the capital Khartoum and spread to other regions including western Darfur.
The war has killed more than 24,000 people so far, according to Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, a group monitoring the conflict since it started. It has created the world's worst displacement crisis, with more than 11 million people fleeing their homes including 3 million to neighboring countries.
Guterres urged both sides to immediately agree to a cessation of hostilities, ensure the protection of civilians for which they bear primary responsibility, and enable humanitarian aid to flow to millions in need.
The secretary-general said he is “horrified” by reports that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, continue to attack civilians in North Darfur’s capital El Fasher and surrounding areas, including displacement sites where famine has been confirmed.
“And I am also horrified by reports of attacks against civilians perpetrated by forces affiliated with the Sudanese Armed Forces in Khartoum, and by continuing mass civilian casualties due to apparently indiscriminate airstrikes in populated areas,” he said.
Guterres said those who violate international humanitarian law must be held accountable.
The war began four years after a pro-democracy uprising forced the military’s ouster of Sudan’s longtime Omar al-Bashir which was followed by a short-lived transition to democracy.
It has been marked by atrocities such as mass rape and ethnicity-motivated killings. The United Nations and international rights groups say these acts amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, particularly in the western region of Darfur, which has been facing a bitter onslaught by the RSF, which was born out of the Janjaweed.
Two decades ago, Darfur became synonymous with genocide and war crimes, particularly by the notorious Janjaweed Arab militias, against populations that identify as Central or East African. Up to 300,000 people were killed and 2.7 million were driven from their homes.
That legacy appears to have returned, with the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor, Karim Khan, saying in January there are grounds to believe both sides may be committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide in Darfur.