BY Joseph A. Kechichian, Senior Writer – Gulf News

Beirut: Three years after the August 23, 2013 simultaneous bombings of
Al Taqwa and Al Salam mosques in Tripoli that left 42 individuals dead
and more than 600 injured, Judge Alaa Al Khatib issued a detailed
indictment of two Syrian intelligence officers who apparently supervised
the operations.

This condemnation is a first for the Lebanese
judiciary, given that senior magistrates seldom complete their
investigation due to political pressure. Judge Al Khatib
identified the two Syrians by name — Mohammad Ali Ali, a captain serving
in the Military Intelligence Brigade 235, also known as the Palestine
Branch, and Nasser Juban, an official in the Political Security
Division.

Arrest warrants for the two suspects were duly issued
along with the establishment of a permanent investigation cell to
uncover the identities of any senior officials who may have given orders
and orchestrated the attack, whether they were foreign nationals or
Lebanese citizens. Al Khatib, who delivered his 44-page report to
Minister of Justice Ashraf Rifi, clarified that his investigations led
to the orders that were issued by a senior security branch in the Syrian
Intelligence, though he refrained to reveal that individual’s name.

Five Lebanese suspects were also indicted although only one suspect
was charged for the crime, Yousuf Diab — who hails from Tripoli’s Jabal
Mohsen — was arrested.

The magistrate turned his attention to the
purported role of the Alawite Arab Democratic Party (ADP) in the attack,
especially its leader Ali Diab, who was summoned for questioning on
several occasions but who fled to Damascus where he apparently died in
2015.

Rifi called on the government of Lebanon to expel the Syrian
ambassador, Ali Abdul Karim Ali, and to sever diplomatic ties with
Damascus.

“The accusatory decision lays out in detail how the
bombing was committed,” he announced during a news conference, and “in
that respect, I request that the Cabinet expel the Syrian ambassador and
sever diplomatic ties with Syria … this is the request of the
families of the martyrs.”

He added: “The times of Syrian tutelage
are gone and will not be coming back. The threats of the Syrian regime
will not scare us.”

Rifi also blasted Lebanese officials for
cooperating with Syria in the Tripoli plot and despite some officials
who have fled the country, he vowed that the case was “far from over”.

Former
Prime Minister Sa‘ad Hariri, son of assassinated former Prime Minister
Rafik Hariri, said the indictment proved the direct involvement of the
Syrian regime.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon, investigating
Syrian and Hezbollah involvement in his father’s murder in 2004,
however, has yet to arrest the culprits who remain at large