Lebanon’s Geagea Says Judicial Decisions against Party Unlawful

Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) party, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his residence in Maarab, Lebanon November 29, 2021. (Reuters)
Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) party, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his residence in Maarab, Lebanon November 29, 2021. (Reuters)
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Lebanon’s Geagea Says Judicial Decisions against Party Unlawful

Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) party, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his residence in Maarab, Lebanon November 29, 2021. (Reuters)
Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces (LF) party, speaks during an interview with Reuters at his residence in Maarab, Lebanon November 29, 2021. (Reuters)

Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Samir Geagea said on Saturday that recent judicial decisions against his party were against the law.

Speaking at a news conference days after a judge charged him over deadly violence in Beirut in October, Geagea said that the judicial decisions were aimed at tarnishing the image of the LF.

"The attempts to isolate, encircle, intimidate and abolish the Lebanese Forces continue to this day... And the latest attempt in this regard was judicial decisions that were born-dead because they are against every law," he said, without mentioning the charge.

Seven people, all of them followers of the Iran-backed Shiite Hezbollah party and its Shiite ally the Amal Movement, were killed in the Oct. 14 clashes near an old frontline of the 1975-90 civil war.

Geagea, a leading opponent of Hezbollah, was summoned to a hearing at military intelligence last October over the violence, but did not attend.

The Oct. 14 violence began as people were gathering for a protest called by Hezbollah against the judge investigating the 2020 Beirut port blast.

Hezbollah accused the LF of mounting an ambush to try to drag the country to a civil war.

Geagea has said the trouble began when supporters of the Shiite parties entered the Christian neighborhood of Ain al-Remmaneh where they vandalized cars and four residents were wounded before a shot was fired.

Geagea was speaking at an event to launch the candidacy of an LF candidate who is running in a May parliamentary election.

The Lebanese Forces media officer, Elie Kayrouz, said in a statement on Saturday that the charge is "political prejudice and an apparent slander against the Forces and Samir Geagea" ahead of the parliamentary election.



Palestinian NGO to Ask UK Court to Block F-35 Parts to Israel over Gaza War

Protesters demonstrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice ahead of a legal challenge brought by the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq over Britain's exports of parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, amid its conflict with Hamas, in London, Britain, November 18, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin
Protesters demonstrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice ahead of a legal challenge brought by the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq over Britain's exports of parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, amid its conflict with Hamas, in London, Britain, November 18, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin
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Palestinian NGO to Ask UK Court to Block F-35 Parts to Israel over Gaza War

Protesters demonstrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice ahead of a legal challenge brought by the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq over Britain's exports of parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, amid its conflict with Hamas, in London, Britain, November 18, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin
Protesters demonstrate outside the Royal Courts of Justice ahead of a legal challenge brought by the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq over Britain's exports of parts for F-35 fighter jets to Israel, amid its conflict with Hamas, in London, Britain, November 18, 2024. REUTERS/Sam Tobin

Britain is allowing parts for F-35 fighter jets to be exported to Israel despite accepting they could be used in breach of international humanitarian law in Gaza, lawyers for a Palestinian rights group told a London court on Monday.

West Bank-based Al-Haq, which documents alleged rights violations by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, is taking legal action against Britain's Department for Business and Trade at London's High Court, Reuters reported.

Israel has been accused of violations of international humanitarian law in the Gaza war, with the UN Human Rights Office saying nearly 70% of fatalities it has verified were women and children, a report Israel rejected.

Israel says it takes care to avoid harming civilians and denies committing abuses and war crimes in the conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Al-Haq's case comes after Britain in September suspended 30 of 350 arms export licences, though it exempted the indirect export of F-35 parts, citing the impact on the global F-35 programme.

Al-Haq argues that decision was unlawful as there is a clear risk F-35s could be used in breach of international humanitarian law.

British government lawyers said in documents for Monday's hearing that ministers assessed Israel had committed possible breaches of international humanitarian law (IHL) in relation to humanitarian access and the treatment of detainees.

Britain also "accepts that there is clear risk that F-35 components might be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of IHL", its lawyer James Eadie said.

Eadie added that Britain had nonetheless decided that F-35 components should still be exported, quoting from advice to defense minister John Healey that suspending F-35 parts "would have a profound impact on international peace and security".

A full hearing of Al-Haq's legal challenge is likely to be heard early in 2025.

The Gaza health ministry says more than 43,800 people have been confirmed killed since the war erupted on Oct. 7, 2023.