BEIRUT (AFP) — Lebanon's chief prosecutor is seeking the death penalty for the fugitive Palestinian leader of an Islamist militia over a twin bus bombing a year ago that killed three people, his office said on Tuesday.
Prosecutor Said Mirza has accused Shaker al-Abssi, head of the Fatah al-Islam group which fought a 15-week battle against the army in a Palestinian refugee camp last year, of "incitement to murder," over the attack.
He is seeking the same penalty for another three Syrian members of the Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam who are accused of carrying out the February 13, 2007 attack in the mountain village of Ain Alak.
The Syrians behind bars in the case, for which a trial date has yet to be announced, were named as Mustafa Siou, Kamal Farid Nassan and Yasser Shukeiri.
The charge sheet accuses Siou of having planted the explosives on one of the buses, while fellow assailant Omar Hajji had bombed the other vehicle and been killed in fighting in Nahr al-Bared camp later the same year.
Nassan and Shukeiri allegedly helped Siou transport the bomb.
Siou has allegedly confessed that the bus attack was carried out as "a message to the anti-Syrian majority" in the Lebanese parliament that is locked in a power struggle with the opposition, backed by Iran and Syria.
He has also said that Abssi planned to place a bomb at a Shiite religious meeting place used by Hezbollah or near the offices of the Phalangists, a Christian party, as part of a plot to stir sectarian strife.
Lebanon's top anti-terror agent, Captain Wissam Eid, who was assassinated in Beirut on January 25 along with four other people, played a key role in unmasking the bus bombers, according to the charge sheet.
The chief prosecutor said the killing could have been revenge for his investigation, which relied on telephone call intercepts.
The bus attack came as Lebanon was preparing to mark the anniversary of the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, whose death in a 2005 Beirut car bombing triggered the country's worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war.
Since then Lebanon has been hit by a wave of attacks against prominent anti-Syrian figures and is currently battling with a political crisis that has left the country without a president since November.
Abssi's militia fought with Lebanese troops in the northern refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared in a battle which left more than 400 people dead before the fighting ended in September.
The three Syrians detained are also accused of having helped smuggle Fatah al-Islam fighters into the camp.
In addition to being hunted by Lebanese troops, Abssi is wanted by both Syria and Jordan for radical activities including the 2002 assassination of a US diplomat in Amman.
Abssi's fate has been shrouded in mystery since the end of the Nahr al-Bared fighting. His wife had said Abssi had been killed in the camp fighting but DNA tests on the body determined it was not him.
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