Lebanon sentences pro-Israeli warlord to death .
Haitham Haddadin
BEIRUT 1996-12-06
A Lebanese military court on Friday sentenced to death in absentia the commander of Israel 's surrogate militia in south Lebanon on treason charges .
The court convicted General Antoine Lahd , head of the South Lebanon Army ( SLA ) , of collaborating with Israel with which Lebanon is officially at war .
Lahd , a 69-year-old former Lebanese army major-general , heads the 3,000-strong SLA militia which helps Israel hold a border zone in south Lebanon to ward off cross-frontier guerrilla raids on northern Israel .
Lahd said a few days after the trial began on February 16 that Lebanese authorities must drop the charges or risk blocking any peace deal with the Jewish state .
He said Israel was capable of pressuring Lebanon 's Syrian-backed government to stop the legal pursuit .
The charges against Lahd were : forming a hostile army , carrying weapons on Israel 's side , helping Israel strip off a part of Lebanese territory by violence , forming an armed gang , killing or trying to kill Lebanese civilians by artillery shelling and kidnapping Lebanese citizens for long periods .
Shortly before Lahd 's trial began , a Beirut military prosecutor charged another 89 former Lebanese army soldiers with collaborating with Israel .
No date has been set for the trial of the men , all members of the SLA living in the Israeli-held zone in south Lebanon .
Israel and Lahd have repeatedly demanded safety guarantees for the SLA -- a mixed Christian-Shi'ite Moslem force -- which the Jewish states regards as loyal allies .
Israel has said the Lebanese army must incorporate the SLA fighters into its ranks as an army brigade as a condition for peace .
But Lebanese political analysts have said that would be out of the question and Lebanese authorities pre-empted the issue by taking legal action against Lahd .
Former Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres , calling Lahd " a great Lebanese patriot " , said earlier this year Lebanon had insulted the SLA commander by ordering his arrest on the treason charges .
Peres , who was ousted in May by rightwing Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu , said there could not be real negotiations with Lebanon " unless it will stop the maltreatment of the SLA and its commanders . "
The Beirut military court also sentenced to life in jail in absentia Etian Saqr , former head of the pro-Israeli Guardians of the Cedars , a small rightwing Christian civil war militia .
Saqr , whose trial was concurrent with Lahd 's , was convicted of " contacting the Israeli enemy , passing information to Israel and undertaking hostile acts against Lebanon " .