BEIRUT, Aug 16, 01 (CWNews.com) - A Christian journalist has been arrested by Lebanese security officials as part of a government crackdown on Christian dissidents critical of Syria's influence on the country, according to a leader of Lebanon's journalists' union.
The union leader said in a statement that the head of Lebanon's secret police had told him that Antoine Bassil of the MBC satellite channel had been detained for questioning. Last week, about 200 members of Christian opposition groups who oppose Syria's virtual stranglehold on Lebanon's political, economic, and social spheres were arrested by security forces. A military prosecutor on Thursday requested jail terms of three to 15 years for 67 people arrested in the crackdown and charged with attacking members of the security forces.
A group of parliamentarians and publishers on Thursday criticized the arrests and executive pressure by President Emile Lahoud on members of Parliament to pass legislation widening the powers of Lebanon's pro-Syrian president as "an attack on the constitutional system." They also warned against the creeping influence of the military.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs
16. august 2001