Karam released from prison after serving 20 months

Former military officer and Free Patriotic Movement official Fayez Karam was released from prison Tuesday after spending a year and eight months behind bars for contacting Israel. Less than two hours after his release, the retired Lebanese Army Brig. Gen., a close aide to FPM leader Michel Aoun and one of the founders of the FPM, said he would defend his country against any future aggression by Israel. “I hope those hard days won’t come back to the country, but if they do, I will be ready to confront Israel,” he added. Karam was arrested by the Internal Security Forces’ Information Branch in 2010 on suspicion of spying for Israel and providing the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad with information on the FPM and Hezbollah. After steadfastly maintaining his innocence throughout two years of trial and appeals at the military tribunal, Karam, 62, was found guilty of contacting Israeli intelligence. The court sentenced him to only two years in prison, making him one of a few Lebanese convicted of dealing with Israel to receive a sentence short of life in prison. Although it is common to permanently strip collaborators of their civil rights, the court mentioned nothing during Karam’s sentencing. As a convicted felon, he will regain his civil rights after seven years, unless the president issues him an official pardon before that. Neither Aoun nor Hezbollah publicly welcomed the release of Karam Tuesday. Speaking to reporters following his bloc’s weekly meeting in Rabieh, Aoun said only that his aide had fully served his sentence and was now back home. For its part, Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television mentioned the FPM official’s release from prison in a brief statement toward the end of its daily news bulletin. Karam’s lawyer Rashad Salameh said his client was released after serving his two-year prison term. “Brig. Gen. Karam benefited from the new prison law,” said Salameh, who has also defended Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea in court. Parliament passed a law last month that reduces every one year of a prison sentence to nine months. Accompanied by his second attorney, Cinderella Merhej, Karam left the military police headquarters shortly after noon Tuesday and went to see his family in their Kesrouan residence in Kaslik, after a brief stop in Aoun’s Rabieh residence. The meeting with Aoun was held away from the media. Surrounded by his wife, children and friends, Karam was greeted at his home with rounds of applause. As he hugged and kissed his family, Karam said his return home was a proof of his innocence. Despite the absence of an official FPM celebration of his release, Karam reiterated his allegiance to Aoun and FPM’s alliance. “I belong to FPM and I am committed to its principles,” Karam told The Daily Star. “I am not going to get into the details of my trials ... I will leave that for later,” he said, adding that his detention had been purely political. At least 100 people have been arrested on suspicion for collaborating with Israel since 2009, including members of the Lebanese Army, the ISF, as well as telecommunication company employees. Karam also said he would remain loyal to the party he had helped establish. “My political affiliation is to General Aoun and to his political alliance,” he told reporters “I was convicted under the Law 278 for having contacted Israel and after two years of detention I am now with you ... you have all seen that they couldn’t find any evidence against me.” According to Karam, the FPM leader had never abandoned him and his family during his detention. “I am one of the founders of the Free Patriotic Movement, it welcomes me in a great way ... I am not asking from General Aoun more than he did for me and for my family,” said Karam. “There is no need to lose confidence in me because everyone knows what my political affiliation is and before anything I am part of the resistance against Israel,” he said, adding that he hoped those who accused him of treason would unite with him on one front against the enemy. “Being with my family again and to live this day alone is a celebration for me.”Embracing her husband, Karam’s wife Hind Karam said she had waited for this day. “We have been waiting for this day,” she told The Daily Star. “It was a very difficult period for me and for my family, but I thank our friends and the greater family who believed in him and his past.” But civil society activists protested Karam’s release from prison later in the day. Holding banners denouncing the court’s decision at the military court in Beirut, activists said that the judiciary had failed to be objective in its trials of criminals in the country. “How can a thief serve three years in prison while traitors and criminals serve less?” read one banner.