The spy scandal gets hotter and darker. It is all very well to say that Israelis-under-the-bed mania is nothing but an attempt by Hezbollah to provoke paranoia, suspicion and fear among the population, as well as to discredit the UN and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. But now the Lebanese government appears to be towing Hezbollah’s line and filing a complaint with the UN Security Council against Israel for creating spy rings that the government claims are, if not in letter, at least in spirit, in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.
According to the latest figures presented in the Beirut media, around 70 people have been arrested on espionage charges since April of last year. Now sentences are being handed down. On Wednesday, a Lebanese military court sentenced to death Hassan Ahmed al-Hussein, 58, a former school principal, for passing information on Hezbollah’s leadership and Hezbollah positions in South Lebanon to Israel. Two other men were given similar sentences but were not named, and it remains to be seen if the three will reach the scaffold or if their sentences will be commuted. Their convictions come one week after Ali Mantash was given a similar sentence and two months after another military tribunal also handed down the death penalty to Lieutenant Colonel Ghazwan Chahine, again for spying for Israel.
While these are clearly serious offenses, and while the passing of information to a nation with which we are still technically at war should not be encouraged, the process that found these individuals guilty, not to mention the sentences handed down, do not appear to have been a model of transparency. We understand that a military tribunal must, according to Lebanese law, be used in matters of national security, even if the defendants are civilians, but fuller disclosure on their activities and the extent of their contact with Israel would help calm those who might believe they have been the victims of a kangaroo court.
It would be helpful to know that Hussein and his co-defendants were allowed due process, and that they were allowed to summon witnesses and be cross-examined. It would be sad if they were tried on secret evidence, or evidence that was improperly obtained, irrelevant or inadmissible, and it would be nothing short of an outrage if the outcome of their trial were pre-determined for the sole purpose of providing a conviction.
Tensions are already running high, especially in the aftermath of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah’s speech last Friday in which he implied that anyone who still supported what he declared was a Zionist-infected Special Tribunal were themselves in league with Israel. In such an atmosphere, it is important that the Lebanese enjoy complete disclosure on a subject that threatens to widen the political divide and sow seeds of animosity.
But what of all these death sentences? News that Hussein was also to be executed comes five days after Development and Liberation bloc MP Yassine Jaber, commenting on the Alfa espionage scandal, called for Lebanese found guilty of spying for Israel to be hanged, “so that they can serve as an example to those who try to undermine security and stability in this country and dare to collaborate with Israel.”
One would have expected a more enlightened and responsible expression from Jaber, especially since, if Lebanon wants to enhance its still-shaky reputation within the international community and be taken seriously as a progressive nation, a pristine record on human rights is non-negotiable. We don’t know what motivated Hussein, Mantash, Chahine and the other two unnamed gentlemen. It could have been greed, ideology or vanity – perhaps a combination of all three. But unless it can be proven beyond a doubt that their actions led to the deaths of Lebanese (and even then the moral argument can rage), we really shouldn’t be hanging spies.
It’s not what civilized nations do.
