LEBANON: 23 SENTENCED TO DEATH OVER 2007 FATAH AL-ISLAM BATTLE

Lebanon’s Judicial Council sentenced 23 people to death over their involvement in the 2007 Fatah al-Islam attacks on the Army, a judicial source said.
The 23 convicts were identified as: Mahmoud Mansour, Bilal al-Khodor, Ali Mustapha, Abdel-Aziz al-Masri, Ahmad Shawat, Bilal Badr, Mohammad Qaddour, Abdel-Karim al-Batal, Mohammad Mustapha, Wafiq Aql, Youssef Khalil, Youssef Shedid, Ibrahim al-Tarman, Moussa al-Amleh, Mahmoud Basyouni, Raafat Khalil, Nader Halwani, Ahmad al-Daqs, Haitham Mustapha, Shadi Makkawi, Adel Ouwayed, Ali Ibrahim and Dahham Ibrahim.
The council charged the 23 convicts with belonging to Fatah al-Islam, which is officially classified as a terrorist organization.
The indictment said the group aimed to weaken the Lebanese state and create a “takfiri fundamentalist emirate in north Lebanon first, and then expand to most [other] Lebanese areas.” In 2007, Fatah al-Islam waged a full-fledged battle against the Lebanese Army in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in north Lebanon, leading to the death of 170 soldiers and 64 civilians.