Rifi seeks international justice in Samaha's case

BEIRUT: Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi will seek international justice in the case of former Minister Michel Samaha after the Cabinet failed to endorse his request to refer the ex-minister's case to the Judicial Council.

"We have exhausted all avenues to accomplish justice in Lebanon but to no avail... I find myself required nay, obligated to resort to the International Criminal Court (ICC);" Rifi said in a news conference Friday.

Rifi has submitted a draft decree to the Cabinet demanding the referral of Samaha's case to the Judicial Council on grounds that the former minister's "crimes posed a threat to national security."

The Military Court had released Samaha back in January after he posted a $100,000 bail, pending his retrial.

Rifi argued that Samaha's plans to transfer weapons across the border from Syria into Lebanon and to target innocent civilians mounted to both war crimes and crimes against humanity, and fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC, according to the various articles of the ICC's Rome Statute including Article VII (item 1 & 2) and Article VIII.

"I will submit a memo to the Canadian authorities asking to launch an internal investigation or have them refer the case to the ICC," Rifi said, explaining that the Court would consider the case since Samaha is a citizen of Canada, a state party to the ICC.

Rifi added that the United Nations Security Council could, under Chapter VII, also refer Samaha's case to the ICC, and vowed "to protect Lebanon's political and security stability."

Samaha was sentenced to four and a half years in prison on counts of forming an armed gang, smuggling explosives from Syria into Lebanon, and attempting to assassinate political and religious figures.

The former minister was arrested in 2012 and was scheduled to be released in December 2015 after serving his sentence in prison. However, the Military Court of Appeal approved in June a request to appeal the initial conviction and granted him bail in January 2016, pending his retrial.

The Court's decision sparked uproar among March 14 officials and their supporters who staged several protests across Lebanon following his release.

Rifi will launch an online petition to rally support for his decision to try Samaha before the ICC.