Attempts to include the name of the head of the Free Patriotic Movement, MP Gebran Bassil, in a security file related to a smuggling and terrorism network failed, after the judicial prosecution showed a complete disconnect between the charges against the network and what was attributed to one of the State Security personnel assigned to protect it.
In detail, press leaks since the arrest of the aforementioned soldier sought to link him to a network that includes former officers in the Syrian regime and people linked to Hezbollah. However, the course of the judicial prosecution confirmed that these attempts were not based on the facts of the investigation, as the soldier was not accused of terrorism crimes, forming an armed gang, or smuggling weapons, and the prosecution against him was limited to “violating military instructions.”
On the other hand, the terrorism and weapons charges included other individuals in the network, most notably the former colonel in the Syrian army, Ali Manaf Safi, and Yasser Alaa al-Din, known as “Abu Alaa” (suspected of running a training camp in the Bekaa), in addition to a former general in the Syrian army from the Jaber family residing in Russia.
Investigations had revealed smuggling operations of Syrian citizens across the northern border towards the southern suburbs to the Bekaa to receive military training, in addition to the seizure of weapons, sniper rifles and hand grenades hidden in one of Akkar’s villages.
After completing the preliminary investigations, it was claimed that the members of the network were eliminated with criminal charges related to terrorism, forming an armed gang, and arms trading, which are crimes that could be punished by up to life imprisonment, while the allegation against Basil’s companions remained limited to violating instructions alone.
The developments led to the emergence of a paradox represented by the discrepancy between the leaks that aimed to implicate Bassil politically by exaggerating the role of his companions, and the decisive judicial position that separated a limited military violation from a wide-ranging security file that the head of the movement had no close or distant connection to.
