International
Lebanon Military Court Drops Charges Against ‘Butcher Of Khiam’
Lebanon’s military court has dropped charges against a former member of an Israel-backed militia accused of supervising the torture of thousands of people at a notorious south Lebanon prison decades ago.
The state-run National News Agency (NNA) on Monday reported that the charges against Lebanese American Amer Fakhoury, who was a former member of the now-disbanded South Lebanon Army (SLA) – a proxy militia backed by Israel during the 1982-2000 occupation of Lebanon, were dropped because the statute of limitations had expired,
More than a decade has passed since the alleged crimes of kidnapping, imprisoning and torturing Lebanese people were committed in 1998, the NNA said, as the court ordered his immediate release unless there are other criminal charges against him.
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Fakhoury is accused of overseeing the torture of thousands at the Khiam Prison in the 1980s and 1990s and being personally involved in the murder of several detainees, earning him the nickname, the Butcher of Khiam.
Israel withdrew from the country in 2000, eventually settling in the US state of New Hampshire.
He was arrested after he entered Lebanon in September.
However, a civil case against Fakhoury by former inmates of the Khiam Prison is continuing in a Beirut court on charges that he arrested, imprisoned and tortured them.
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