Former Lebanese Information Minister Michel Samaha yesterday confessed that he had transported explosives and money from Syria to carry out a series of assassinations and attacks in Lebanon, AFP news agency reported.
“I received from the Syrians $170,000 inside a bag… and put it in the boot of my car with the explosives,” Samaha, who was also once an adviser to Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, said during the first session of his long-delayed trial before a military tribunal.
However, Samaha claimed that he had been the victim of entrapment because he was not aware that his co-conspirator was a Lebanese security services informer.
“I drove the money and explosives to Beirut in August 2012 and handed them over to a man named Milad Kfouri, but I was unaware that Kfouri was tied to the intelligence services,” he said.
Samaha has been under arrest since August 2012 following allegations that he and two Syrian officials, Syrian National Security Bureau Major General Ali Mamlouk and his assistant whose first name was identified as Adnan, were indicted for transporting explosives from Syria to Lebanon in an attempt to assassinate Lebanese political and religious leaders.
He said the plan was to carry out a series of bombings on the border with Syria in order to close them permanently and stop Lebanese Sunni fighters from joining opposition forces against the Syrian regime.
Samaha’s lawyer, Rana Azoury told AFP that her client “explained to the court that he had fell into a trap laid by the Lebanese intelligence services through Milad Kfoury.”
Azoury added: “Under Lebanese law, if you acted because of the encouragement of an agent provocateur, that is exculpatory and a legitimate defence.”
Samah claimed that he had acted to protect Lebanon from sectarian strife. “It is true that I made a mistake but I wanted to avoid sectarian strife,” he said.
The trial was adjourned to May 13. If convicted, Samaha will face the death penalty.