A Lebanese military court sentenced former information minister Michel Samaha Friday to 13 years in prison with hard labour for attempting to commit "terrorist acts", a judicial source told AFP. Samaha, 68, was convicted of transporting explosives to carry out attacks and assassinations of political and religious figures in Lebanon with the help of Syrian security services.
The ex-minister was arrested in 2012 and sentenced in May 2015 to four and a half years in prison, but that conviction was quashed a month later and a retrial ordered. "The prosecution asked for the death penalty but he was sentenced to 13 years with hard labour," the judicial source said.
But Samaha will actually serve a sentence of less than seven years. Lebanon's "judicial year" is equivalent to just nine months, and Samaha has already served nearly three years following his initial sentencing. He was also stripped of his right to vote or stand as a candidate for public office, the source said.
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