Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil. (Credit: AFP)
BEIRUT — Free Patriotic Movement leader Gebran Bassil filed a defamation complaint on Friday against journalist and TV host Joe Maalouf, accusing him of making "false and misleading accusations" during a program addressing the plight of Lebanese detainees in Syria.
The complaint, drafted by Bassil's lawyer Majed Boueiz, was submitted to the Mount Lebanon Appeals Prosecutor's Office. According to the text, which was reviewed by L’Orient-Le Jour, Bassil claims Maalouf made defamatory statements during Monday’s episode of Lil Watan (for the nation), broadcast on MTV.
During the program, Maalouf harshly criticized ousted Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and accused both former Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Bassil of failing to prioritize the issue of Lebanese detainees in Syrian prisons.
Since 2008, then-president Aoun had made several visits to Syria, and his party was not among the Lebanese formations opposed to resuming relations with Damascus.
"Lebanon began to raise the issue with the authorities, but the Assad regime kept lying to the Lebanese people. When Michel Aoun was in exile [1991-2005] and hostile to Syrian tutelage over Lebanon, he repeatedly called for the release of Lebanese prisoners. However, after his return to the country, the former enemy of the Assad regime made his first visit to Damascus in 2008 to meet President Bashar al-Assad and abandoned this cause," lamented Joe Maalouf.
Maalouf also accused Bassil of following Aoun's footsteps, calling him a "liar" who manipulated "the emotions of the families and mother of Lebanese imprisoned in Syria."
The plight of Lebanese detainees in Syria remains unresolved. Many were arrested during the Lebanese civil war and the subsequent years of Syrian tutelage (1976-2005). Damascus has consistently denied the existence of Lebanese prisoners, and successive Lebanese governments have failed to secure concrete answers.
Reports of Lebanese detainee releases have surfaced following the collapse of the Assad regime on Dec. 8, with lists of alleged prisoners circulating online. However, official confirmation of these releases remains scarce.
The controversy reignited with the release of Lebanese prisoners from the Assad regime's prisons, which sparked a social media campaign labeling Aoun a "traitor" for his 2008 meeting with Assad, during which the Syrian leader reportedly assured him there were no Lebanese detainees in Syrian jails.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orinet Le-Jour.
