Region | Lebanon
Beirut airport surveillance report being probed
The latest crisis erupted when anti-Syrian pro-government leader Walid Junblatt on Saturday accused Hezbollah of placing the cameras around the airport.
- AP
- Published: 00:11 May 6, 2008
Beirut: Lebanon's top prosecutor on Monday began investigating allegations that Hezbollah set up surveillance cameras near the Beirut airport to monitor the comings and goings of anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians and foreign dignitaries.
Judicial officials said Prosecutor General Saeed Mirza ordered the investigation after receiving documents from the country's defence and interior ministers about Hezbollah's alleged placement of the cameras just outside the airport in the Lebanese capital.
They also said military prosecutor Sami Sader was questioning witnesses in the case.
Also on Monday, a senior Shiite cleric who backs Hezbollah warned the government to back off the case, or risk jeopardising security at the nation's only international airport.
The latest crisis erupted when anti-Syrian pro-government leader Walid Junblatt on Saturday accused Hezbollah of placing the cameras around the airport. In his accusations, Junblatt also said the airport's security chief, Brig. Gen. Wafiq Shoukair, who he described as a Hezbollah loyalist, should be fired.
But Shaikh Abdul Amir Kabalan, top official of the influential Supreme Shiite Council, dismissed allegations of Shoukair's links to the Shiite group and warned against any government decision to punish the airport security chief or sever ties with Iran.
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