Procrastination Encourages Clandestine Webs’ Further Treason, Reinforces Espionage Capabilities
The Military Cassation Court (a highest-instance appellate court), headed by Judge Alice Shabtini al-Am, is issuing very slow-rated sentences against the arrested agents, as well as the renegades. In contrast, the Permanent Military Court is making an effort to issue unobstructed resolutions and sentences when not encountered by obstacles which are created by the defense attorneys in most of the cases. Tens of sentences against the agents have been issued in accordance with their acts and services, reaching the execution penalty; yet, the Military Cassation Court is slowly considering these filed cases without any convincing legal reasons.
Anyway, it is logical to prioritize considering the weighty cases deserving considerable penalties so as to resolve them either by affirming or mitigating them, for they have inflicted a lot of harm that this their cases must not be ignored or forgotten; that is, the information of some agents actually has led to slaying Lebanese citizens and demolishing houses and institutions.
Legally, it is known that every execution sentence is subject to immediate impugn by the Military Cassation Court even when the concerned attorneys do not request the verdict cassation, whereby the Cassation Court conducts the trial procedures all over again by reciting the papers, interrogating the accused person or persons, and listening to the witnesses and the attorneys' statements before issuing the verdict. But for unclear and illogical reasons, the Military Distinction Court is intentionally not resolving the cases of the major agents by issuing the required sentences according the actualities of each case.
This does not help to put an end to treason, espionage, and the continuous communication of the spread clandestine webs in different locations on the Lebanese territories. In contrast, quickening the issuance of verdicts scares the hiding agents and changes their lives into a hell of worry, confusion, and restlessness, freezing, therefore, their oppressive activities and services. For instance, during the series of dissociating the "Israeli" espionage webs, which started in the spring of 2009, a big number of agents were scared of getting exposed, so they got rid of the tools and equipment the Mossad (Literally: "The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations") had given to them by ruining them or burying them in the bottom of the sea or in distant places. This has been exposed in the agents' very confessions, which are recorded in their files and in the corresponding primary interrogation and investigation proceedings.
Only a few agents kept their tools and equipment, which were used as evidences against them when seized by the concerned Lebanese Security Forces.
For example, the dangerous agent Jawdat Muhammad Kheirullah al-Khoja confessed to the First Military Investigation Judge Riyadh Abu Gheida that he was scared of getting exposed after the Lebanese intelligence has exposed the collaborators with the Mossad. Then the "Israelis" asked him to destroy the following devices: the battery device, including all of its contents and tapes; the old "typing" device, which functioned as a transmitter and a receiver; a SONY "radio"; the device-hiding desk; in addition to all devices fixed in the car which he drove around Beirut and the Southern Suburb, particularly in the July War in 2006. Agent al-Khoja did so and threw these devices in different locations in Tripoli, keeping only a television activated by satellites, as well as a flash memory.
It is significant that some attorneys of the accused agents, who had long collaborated with the enemy and were given "advanced ranks" by the Mossad, like to outsmart the law, procrastinating the hearings for their client's cases as much as they can, sometimes making medical excuses and some other times claiming their clients "haven't been taken from their arrest place". These attorneys do this after having run out of all legal means of procrastinating the verdicts, for example by making formal forwarding or claiming time periods to consider the cases and photocopy the corresponding papers; whereby they think these are the best means to evade severe sentences. But the weird thing about this is that the court of law passes these legal tricks while it is supposed to be absolutely firm, allowing none to overcome the law in the first place.
Besides, there are others who picture the verdicts to be made in accordance with the political situations prevailing in Lebanon; that is, if it is requested that the agents get severe sentences, then their attorneys try to procrastinate the trials as much they can so as to avoid such sentences; whereas if laxity exists as to this critical issue, then they normally act on the case. This is done while neither the Permanent Military Court nor the Military Cassation Court is succeeding as to ceasing the intentional procrastination series. So why are these attorneys allowed to choose the timing they find convenient for their judicial cases when looking into the cases must be finished within certain time periods, during which all valid and accepted legal procedures can be achieved?
Actually, it doesn't sound strange that some lawpersons and judges denounce the military judiciary's flexibility in dealing with the attorneys continuously obstructing the achievement of justice by procrastinating their clients' cases for months or years when the situation actually requires severity in dealing with these cases in order to prevent their development and their visualization as "jurisprudence" which is always applicable.
Among the cases looking into which has taken too long is that of the agent, former General Security Brigadier General Adib al-Alam and his wife Hayat Saloumi, which was the beginning of dissociating the "Israeli" espionage webs in 2009. Though agent al-Alam and his wife have been arrested for three years, the Permanent Military Court hasn't yet issued the right verdicts. In fact, Saloumi's attorney has resorted to a procrastination policy, absenting himself from the court hearings whenever held. This has pushed the court of law to procrastinate the hearing over and over again until making this trial a three-year-long one, which has rarely occurred in the history of trying agents.
Though two years or more have passed since some agents were sentenced to death, the Military Cassation Court hasn't issued the verdicts for their cases, among who is agent Mahmoud Qassem Rafi' (who received his first sentence by the Permanent Military Court on 18 February, 2010), Ali Hussein Mantash (who received his sentence on 13 July, 2010), Hassan Ahmad al-Hussein (whose sentence was issued on 21 July, 2010), Ossama Muhammad Ali Berri (whose sentence was issued on 17 August, 2011), and the gendarme Haitham as-Sohmorani (who received his sentence on 17 February, 2012).
Thereon, is it credible that the Military Cassation Court hasn't yet found enough time to issue the verdicts for these agents' cases among all cases it has had?! Isn't it better to issue the required sentences whereby the death penalties they include get executed? This will be a harsh message for the agents, conveying they must put an end to their treason against Lebanon by renouncing the espionage series and no further supporting the enemy forces and plotting along with them.
Doesn't procrastinating the verdicts, even the ones including the execution penalty, mean keeping the agents free in their prisons after they have punished Lebanese people by communicating messages and information to the enemy that harmed Lebanese people, dislodged them, and killed them? Doesn't the procrastination of the execution penalty develop the agents' capabilities and encourage them to sustain their espionage course? No matter to which confession the agents apparently belong, they must be punished as they do not actually belong to any confession or nation; punishing them must serve as a moral to others, so why is laxity intended?
The procrastination of the issuance of the verdicts for the major agents does not help to put an end to treason, espionage, and the continuous communication of the spread clandestine webs.
Some attorneys of the accused agents like to outsmart the law, the procrastination of the hearings for their client's cases through different means so as to avoid severe verdicts.
Three years have passed since arresting agent Adib al-Alam and his wife, but no verdict has been issued because of the procrastination policy the attorney has resorted to.
