Nada Homsi was detained on Nov. 16. (Credit: Nada Homsi, via Human Rights Watch)
BEIRUT — Two days after the release of the Beirut-based American journalist of Syrian origin Nada Homsi, who Lebanese authorities had held in detention for three weeks, Lebanon’s General Security said Friday she had been arrested for having stayed in Israel, a country with which Lebanon is technically at war.
Here’s what we know:
• The General Directorate of General Security issued a statement Friday “to clarify” the circumstances surrounding Homsi’s arrest and detention. Homsi was arrested on Nov. 16 and released Wednesday hours after two international rights organizations released a joint statement slamming her detention as “arbitrary” and demanding she be freed.
• In its clarification statement, General Security addresses the claims “that there was no judicial order” and that Homsi “was arbitrarily detained,” saying, “During the followup by the departments in the directorate, it was found that the American, Nada Homsi, possessed a second American passport that she did not present to the Lebanese authorities. The second passport proves her entry and residence in the occupied Palestinian territories.” The statement does not make clear when this “followup” took place.
• Under Lebanon’s anti-normalization mandates, any traveler with evidence of a visit to Israel on their passport is prohibited from entering Lebanon.
• The General Security statement goes on to explain that General security searched Homsi’s residence “by order from the military general prosecutor's office” and found “an Israeli booklet containing an Israeli card, Israeli banknotes, war ammunition, 41 bags, two empty smoke bombs and a quantity of hashish.”
• “During her interrogation, she was informed of all her rights,” the statement continues, explaining that this included Article 47 of the Criminal Trials Law, which outlines the right to contact a family member and request an interview with a lawyer. The statement, however, claims that, using a sworn translator, Homsi expressed that “she did not want to take advantage of” these options.
• Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch cited Diala Chehade, Homsi’s lawyer, as saying that General Security personnel entered Homsi’s flat on Nov. 16 without a proper order and discovered a small amount of cannabis. The security personnel conducting the raid then called the public prosecutor, who issued an arrest warrant for Homsi and her partner, according to Chehade. Authorities also took Homsi’s electronics and papers. Despite the fact that the public prosecutor ordered Homsi's release on Nov. 25, General Security issued a deportation order against her and continued to detain her, the statement HRW issued alongside Amnesty International read.