In Lebanon, a 'Spy Case' that Demonstrates Why Sectarian Politics Must End | Syndication Bureau

(MENAFN- Syndication Bureau)

In what had seemed like a counterespionage breakthrough for Lebanon, its State Security office in November arrested an actor named Ziad Itani and charged him for spying for Israel. Officials then leaked“damning” evidence against Itani and claimed that he confessed. But a judge later found the State Security agency's allegations unprovable, and transferred the investigation to another department, called the Information Branch. It was then concluded that the evidence against Itani was fabricated, and he was declared innocent earlier this month. The judiciary then summoned for questioning the officer at the State Security office who was in charge of the case.

Itani's story might at first glance seem no more than a simple case of human error. But delve deeper into the details and what emerges show deep problems: the ineptitude of officialdom and the corrosive politics of Lebanon's trademark sectarianism.

This is how it all began. State Security Major Suzanne El-Hajj apparently“liked” a Tweet by a Lebanese who had belittled the Saudi decree allowing women to drive. But, it seems, she then quickly deleted it. But another Ziad Itani, a press officer close to former Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi, had meanwhile captured an image of the supposed“like” and re-Tweeted it. This Itani was demoted.

Then, it became more interesting. A hacker, it seems, went looking for dirt on Itani. The problem was, the hacker got the wrong Ziad Itani. Even then, nothing incriminating was found. In what now appears to be the case, a series of fabricated electronic exchanges between Itani and an imaginary Israeli intelligence officer emerged.

The accusations were risible and became the butt of jokes. They included supposed Israeli instructions to Itani to collect intelligence on persons more usually considered political have-beens, to“spread the culture of normalization with Israel among intellectuals,” and to“market the two-state solution” between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

The arrest of the wrong Itani turned into a bigger scandal when the religious affiliation of El-Hajj and of her security agency, on the one hand, and Itani and the agency that discovered the bogus evidence against him, on the other, came out. Enter, Lebanon's sectarian politics.

El-Hajj is a Maronite Christian, and so are the majority of the officer corp at the State Security office, which is under the wings of Lebanon's Maronite president, Michel Aoun. Itani and members of the Information Branch are Sunni. Also, the Information Branch falls under the auspices of the country's Sunni prime minister, Saad Hariri, and interior minister, Nouhad Machnouk.

Aoun, the State Security office and El-Hajj presented their intelligence breakthrough as an“act of resistance.” This might have been looked on favorably by the all-powerful Hezbollah movement and its Shia base. After the discovery of the fabricated evidence, Hariri, Machnouk and the Information Branch comported themselves in ways that might have them read as defenders of Sunnis. And as the Sunni political constituency tried to turn the table on Itani's accusers, Aoun found it necessary to play his role as a defender of Maronite Christians, implying that Hariri's effort on behalf of Itani was an electoral stunt. Parliamentary elections were at that time just seven weeks away.

The debacle might soon be resolved with little harm to the officer at the heart of the case, but whose career, though, looks now doomed. Nevertheless, the story highlights the rot at the heart of the state: out-of-control security agencies protected by their respective oligarchs and a weak system that manages to serve justice only sporadically. Indeed, the Itani case highlights a chronic problem of the politicized justice system, one that has left high profile crimes — such as the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafic Hariri in 2005 — go unresolved, while, admittedly, achieving breakthroughs on other crimes.

Compare two cases. First, in 1994, a bomb that went off at the Our Lady of Salvation Church in Keserwan, near Beirut, was connected to Lebanese Forces militia chief Samir Geagea. A previous pardon had erased all criminal accusations related to the civil war, but because alleged criminal acts after the issuance of the pardon were not subject to the amnesty, Geagea, as a suspect in the bombing, was arrested. In one of Lebanon's longest and most publicized trials, Geagea was found not guilty. But inexplicably, he was also tried for accusations that would have fallen under the pardon. He was accused of“organizing a militia,” found guilty and given four death sentences that were commuted to life in prison. He was eventually freed 11 years later. The decision against Geagea, a Christian, of organizing a militia was surreal not only because it was unfair and politically driven, but because it was handed down as Hezbollah's own militia was strutting about in full view of the public.

Next, in a remarkable sting operation in 2012, the Information Branch agency caught former Lebanese lawmaker and cabinet member Michel Samaha red-handed shuttling bombs between the Syrian presidential palace and undercover police operatives in Beirut. The agency's chief — who directed the sting — was later assassinated. Samaha was given only four years in prison, and with time served he was immediately set free. Had it not been for a public uproar that forced a retrial, Samaha would not have been sent back to jail, this time until 2025.

What these two cases demonstrate is that justice is not served when justice is unpredictable. The politicization of practically every aspect of life and the unchecked power of Hezbollah and the various security agencies have eroded public trust in law and order. And when citizens feel vulnerable and unprotected, it is understandable that they should turn to the oligarchs. But this only entrenches Lebanon's less-than-ideal justice system. Worse, it prolongs the life of the nation's defective“consensus democracy.” Sectarianism rightly should have no place in a Lebanon that aspires to modernity.

Hussain Abdul-Hussain is the Washington bureau chief of Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai and a former visiting fellow at Chatham House in London.

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