By Majdoline Hatoum

Special to The Daily Star
Wednesday, November 10, 2004

BEIRUT: The Beirut Criminal Court has set Feb. 8, 2005 for the trial of Former Army Commander Michel Aoun on the charge of undermining Leb-anon's relations with Syria.

Aoun, who was acting prime minister in 1990, is charged with "undermining Lebanon's relations with a sisterly country and putting Lebanon in danger of terrorist acts."

The charges stem from his testimony before U.S. Congress in September 2003, during discussions of the Syria Accountability Act and Restoration of Lebanese Sovereignty, when he accused Syria at the time of "two decades of occupation and hegemony."

In a telephone interview on Tuesday from exile in Paris, Aoun said the judiciary was "a puppet in the hands of politicians."

The accusations against him, he said, were "just more proof that the Lebanese judiciary has turned into a politicized tool for the ruling regime."

Aoun also said that he would never show up for a trial conducted by "illegal representatives of the Lebanese people."

The commander compared his situation to that of French General Charles de Gaulle, when he was working from London to liberate France from German occupation during World War II.

"During that time, a French judge name Duval - who cooperated with the German occupation - issued a ruling for the execution of de Gaulle. However, after the occupation ended, Duval was the one to be executed," Aoun said.

"Tell Abou Arraj (the ruling magistrate in Aoun's case) not to give in to the political pressure that is being exerted on him ...

"Regrettably, the Lebanese judiciary has been violated by the corrupt political system," he said, adding that the "ruling figures" in Lebanon were also submissive to the Syrian presence.

"They're all sellouts, and they've betrayed Lebanon to hold on to their positions," he said. "Change is coming," he said. "They will not be able to rely on their Syrian master for much longer."

Aoun said he believed that the international pressure on Lebanon and Syria - which manifested itself in UN Security Council Resolution 1559 - will drive the Syrian presence out of Lebanon soon.

Issued in September, the resolution calls for - among other things - the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. This has been the main demand of Aoun and other Christian opposition groups in Lebanon since the end of the civil war.

"No occupation will last forever," he said, in reference to the presence of about 15,000 remaining Syrian soldiers in Lebanon and the strong Syrian influence in Lebanese politics. "It will end soon, and the very same people who are seeking to put me on trial now will be the ones to face the consequences."

New Justice Minister Adnan Addoum expressed his disappointment Tuesday over the one year lapse between Aoun's testimony, and the decision to set a trial date. "I'm surprised that this date was not set earlier," he said. "The trial should have started a long time ago."

reply

Amazing how stupid and naive Addoum's Master is proving to be : Aoun is "Undermining

 Lebanon's relationship with a sisterly country "

- read Syria ,the fatal big sis- Such an  accusation did not surprise us at all because it was engineered by a desperate regime that is still insisting to stick its head in the sand . We were aghast to learn though that  Aoun is also accused of "setting Lebanon in danger of terrorist acts". This nasty joke proves that the Syrian officer incharge of Lebanon's affairs is really going haywire. We are still eagerly waiting for the outcome of Addoum's investigation of ex minister Marwan Hamadeh's assassination attempt  . Who knows, we might get the answer before Aoun's verdict is out…