Lebanonupdated 55m ago3 min read
Lebanon Charges 13 Linked To Hezbollah Over Seized 780kg Explosives Truck
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Lebanese military court charged 13 people linked to Hezbollah with weapons possession and illegal associations. Seized truck carrying Hezbollah explosives, estimated at 800 kilograms.
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Charges After Explosives Seizure
A Lebanese military court charged 13 people it said are linked to Hezbollah over a seized truck carrying explosives, with the charges including possessing weapons, undermining state security and forming illegal associations. The case centered on a seizure earlier this month at Dahr al-Baydar checkpoint on the highway linking Beirut to the eastern Bekaa Valley, where judicial officials said the vehicle carried 780kg (1,720 pounds) of explosives including 250kg (550 pounds) of TNT and 250kg (550 pounds) of C-4 plastic explosives. The military court referred the matter to the investigative judge Claude Ghanem, and state media reported that two defendants were arrested while the other 11 remain at large.
Hezbollah acknowledged owning the seized explosives and said they were intended for use against Israel, which continues to occupy large parts of southern Lebanon, while the group called the charges “unjust”. Hezbollah Member of Parliament Hussein Hajj Hassan framed the prosecution as confronting the “Israeli enemy that threatens Lebanon’s existence,” as Lebanese authorities faced growing pressure on the Iran-backed group to disarm.
Hezbollah Denounces, Government Presses
Hezbollah refused to recognize the government’s decision outlawing its military activities, after Lebanon declared Hezbollah’s military activities illegal in March following the outbreak of the latest war. The government outlawed Hezbollah’s military activities hours after Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel, triggering a war that left Israeli forces occupying a large swath of the country’s south and killed nearly 4,000 people in Lebanon. Hezbollah later acknowledged owning the explosives and asked Lebanese authorities to return the shipment and release the two detainees, while the group said the charges were “unjust”.
Hezbollah Member of Parliament Hussein Hajj Hassan denounced the proceedings as politically motivated and said the charges were “unfair, unjust and lacking the most basic principles of the National Pact, human rights and the UN Charter”. Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam promised state authorities “will deal with weapons outside the legal framework with the required firmness,” as the case became another test of state control over weapons.
Disarmament Stakes and Next Steps
Lebanon and Israel signed a framework agreement in June that envisaged Israel’s gradual withdrawal from areas it occupies in southern Lebanon tied to Hezbollah’s disarmament, as well as deployment of the Lebanese army to the south. Hezbollah’s chief Naim Qassem dismissed the Lebanon-Israel agreement as “null and void,” while the explosives case unfolded amid pressure on Hezbollah to disarm its military wing. Arab News reported that prosecutors charged 13 suspects under military law, and it said the charges included “planning an operation and transporting large quantities of explosives from Baalbek to Beirut with the intention of undermining state authority”.
Arab News also said the government’s commissioner to the military court, Judge Claude Ghanem, completed a preliminary investigation conducted by Lebanese Army Intelligence into the seizure of about 800 kilograms of C-4 and TNT. The case added to the political stakes described by Arab News, which said the discovery of the explosives fueled fears among some Lebanese about potential use in political assassinations, even as investigators had not established that the seized shipment was intended for such an attack.