Amnesty International Seeks Geagea's Immediate Release

Human rights group Amnesty International has called for the release or retrial of Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea, contending he is jailed in degrading conditions and was convicted in an unfair trial. Amnesty called on Lebanese authorities to immediately release Geagea and Jirjis al-Khoury, who are both serving life sentences in solitary confinement at the defense ministry jail in Yarze on charges of killing political opponents. "Both men suffered serious violations and irregularities in pretrial detention" and are being held in "cruel, inhuman and degrading" conditions, Amnesty said in a statement released in London Tuesday. "They are not allowed to communicate with other detainees, are denied access to newspapers, radio, TV and any literature of a political nature," said the report. The rights group said al-Khoury told the judges at his trial that he confessed under torture, yet the confession was accepted as the main evidence against him. Lebanon denied the allegations. In a statement faxed to The Associated Press, the Lebanese Army said both men had regular visitors from their families and lawyers. Geagea , who was arrested in 1994 when the government outlawed the LF, is serving four life terms totaling 120 years on charges of murder, attempting to rekindle the Lebanese civil war and partitioning Lebanon into sectarian mini-states. Right-wing Christian politicians and Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir had stubbornly argued that the court verdicts were politically motivated because Geagea refused to join the pro-Syrian cabinets that were formed after the civil war guns fell silent in 1990.(AP-Naharnet)