Sixteen More Lebanese Sentenced For Collaboration With Israel
BEIRUT, Jan 26 (News Agencies) - A Beirut military court handed down sentences Friday against 16 Lebanese who collaborated with Israel during its 22-year occupation of the south of the country, a court source said.
Four people were sentenced to between 18 months and three years in prison for working with Israeli intelligence services.
Another 12 were given between six months and one year in prison for joining the South Lebanon Army (SLA), Israel's proxy militia in the south during the occupation.
The court also found another five Lebanese guilty of collaboration but did not sentence them, either because they also worked with Lebanese forces or because their crimes were too old to be prosecuted.
The sentences bring to 2,290 the number of people judged since June 5th, just two weeks after Israel's withdrawal, when Lebanon began trying more than 2,500 Lebanese accused of collaboration.
Eleven people have been sentenced to death and three others to life in prison, all in absentia.
Three former SLA militia members have died in prison, in conditions denounced by Amnesty International.
The human rights group has criticized the fast-paced trials, calling them a parody of justice that "can in no way help national reconciliation."
Several Lebanese opposition leaders have advocated an amnesty for the residents of the former occupied zone, saying they were forced to deal with Israel after being abandoned by the Lebanese state.
But the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, which spearheaded anti-Israeli operations during the occupation, has frequently criticized the sentences as too light.
