Lebanon’s security and judicial investigations uncovered on Friday that Major Susan Hajj Hobeiche, the former head of the Lebanese Anti-Cybercrime and Intellectual Property Bureau, played a dangerous role that overpassed hacking the pages of actor Ziad Itani, who was falsely accused of cooperating with and spying for Israel.
Hajj is now accused of “hacking websites of Lebanese security institutions, ministries, banks and Lebanese and foreign institutions and of trying to involve other people in the crime of collaborating with and spying for Israel,” a security source told Asharq Al-Awsat on Friday.
Itani was arrested in Beirut last November by the State Security Directorate General, which arrested the Lebanese citizen on charges of collaborating and communicating with the Israeli enemy.
He was accused of being recruited by a female Israeli intelligence agent. However, investigations revealed that the “Israeli women” is a hacker from inside the Lebanese territories.
One week after Lebanese security authorities arrested Hajj pending investigations for being suspected of hiring hacker Elie Ghabach to forge conversations between Itani and an Israeli agent, a representative of the public prosecutor at the Military Tribunal filed a lawsuit against Hajj Hobeiche and Ghabach.
Judge Hani Hajjar, the government deputy commissioner at the Military Court, filed a motion against Hobeiche and Ghabash for criminal defamation, piracy and for being suspected of fabricating evidence against Itani.
As a result, the two suspects could face a sentence of up to 10 years with hard labor.
Judge Hajjar later referred Hajj and Ghabash to Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghaida, and asked him to issue two arrest warrants and question the suspects due to the information uncovered in the prosecution’s investigation.
Sources close to the matter told Asharq Al-Awsat that “Suzan Hajj arranged all those actions for personal motives.”
They said Itani was the biggest victim of her plans, which were executed by Elie Ghabash.
