Sakr Stuck in Lebanese Penal Code

Mohammad Allouch

After what was published on both the Al-Akhbar Lebanese daily and the Otv about the "Hariri-Sakr Delicto", revealing Lebanese MP Okab Sakr's deep involvement in multi issues re the Syrian affairs, as well as the former PM Saad Hariri who was encouraging him to do so; it became a must to review the legal point of view in this respect.

Therefore, we asked the Head of Hamourabi Center for Legal Studies and Researches, Lawyer Ibrahim Awada, who informed us about the following:

Re what was published about the Lebanese MP Okab Sakr’s statements and his voice records in which he was encouraging gunmen, the articles mentioned in the Penal Code states the following:

Article 20 of the Lebanese Penal Code provides that “Lebanese Code is applied to every Lebanese, either committer, or initiator or accessory who committed a felony or a misdemeanor punishable under the Lebanese Penal Code.”

Article 288-R, Clause 2 provides that “punished with temporary arrest who he has committed actions, written articles or addressed speeches not authorized by the government, but exposed Lebanon to the risk of hostile acts, disturbed its relations with foreign countries or exposed the Lebanese people to reprisals against them or against their money.”

Article 289 provides that “every attack taking place on the Lebanese lands or done by a Lebanese national aiming at violently changing the constitution or the cabinet of a foreign state, or detaching any piece of its land, is punished with temporary arrest. The conspiracy that aims at any of those mentioned crimes requires at least a one-year arrest.”

Article 290-R provides that “he who recruited soldiers on the Lebanese lands, without the approval of the Lebanese government, in order to engage in a fight for the sake of a foreign state, is punished with temporary arrest or exile.”

Consequently, since Sakr's acts expose Lebanon to risks and disturb its relations with foreign countries, as well as expose the Lebanese people to reprisals and aim at making a change in Syria, along with his leaked statements on recruiting and arming soldiers to fight in the Arab country, thus his acts are punishable under the above four mentioned Articles.

In addition, Article 291-R – amended in accordance with the Code 239 on May 27, 1993 - provides that “the punishment with arrest from 6 months to 2 years and a fine of maximum 400 thousand L.L. is required for every abetting that took place in Lebanon, or that a Lebanese committed by any of the means mentioned in Article 288, which aimed at leading land, naval or aerial soldiers of a foreign state to flee or disobey.”

In the leaked voice record, MP Sakr has clearly confessed to his acts in arming and urging Syrian soldiers to flee and disobey, thus the above article is applied to him.

Article 292 provides that “based on a complaint from the aggrieved party, same punishments are required for the following crimes:
- Insulting a foreign state, its army, its flag, or its national slogan in public.
- Insulting the president of a foreign state, its ministers or its political representative to Lebanon.
- Libeling or slandering against the president of a foreign state, its ministers or its political representative to Lebanon in public does not prove they had committed the act, the subject of slander.”

MP Sakr had committed all of those acts, thus the text provided by the article is applied to him.

Article 293 provides that “if the crime was committed on the Lebanese lands or by a Lebanese citizen against a president of a foreign country, or against any of his ministers or political representative to Lebanon, and wasn't subjected to a specific punishment, then the penalty would be intensified in accordance to Article 257.”

This article is also applied to MP Sakr as well according to his declared statements.

Article 569-R - amended according to the legislative decree 112 on September 16, 1983 – provides that “he who denied the personal freedom of another individual, whether by kidnapping or any other means, is punished with temporary hard labor.
Punished with hard labor for life who he committed the following:
1- If the above mentioned freedom is denied for more than a month,
2- If he whose freedom was denied, has been exposed to physical or moral torture,
3- If the crime was committed against an employee during his job or when he was about to do it, or because of his affiliation to it,
4- If the crime was being motivated by sectarian or factional causes, or was a reprisal by the aggrieved party as a result of an act committed by others who belong to his sect, party or relatives,
5- If the doer used his victim as a hostage to frighten individuals, institutions or the state in order to blackmail or oblige them to do what he desired, to commit a certain act, or to abstain from doing it,
6- If the criminal seized – as a result of the attack - any of the private or public mechanized means of transport, either a car, a train, a ship, or an airplane,
7- If the crime was committed by a group of two persons or more who were armed during the crime."
The penalty is also intensified according to Article 257, should the crime led to the death of a person as a result of terror or any other reason related to the incident.

Since MP Sakr has been acknowledged of kidnapping the Lebanese citizens, and might be involved in detaining them, thus the provided article is applied to him as well due to being involved in denying the Lebanese their freedom.

Article 308-R provides that “punished with hard labor for life who he committed an attack that targeted either provoking civil war or sectarian clashes, via arming Lebanese citizens or urging them to arm themselves against one another, or urging them to kill and steal in a region or another, and is sentenced to death penalty in case the attack took place.”

And since Sakr's act might provoke a civil war and local riot, thus the mentioned article is applied to him.

This legal file doesn't stop at this point, yet it accounts the former PM Saad Hariri according to:

Article 212: The doer of the crime is the one who created the elements that form the crime, or the one who directly contributed to committing it.

Article 213: Every partner in the crime is exposed to the designated punishment by Law. The punishment of he who organized the contribution to the crime, or he who directed the work of its doers, is intensified with respect to the conditions mentioned in Article 257.

Article 217: He who drove any person by any means to commit a crime is considered an initiator.

For all the above stated articles, Hariri has committed acts of accessory and was an initiator of what Sakr has done. Therefore, we consider those acts a notification of the related acts before the Preferential Public Prosecution, and the Lebanese Parliament should assume responsibility to lift his immunity, noting that in case of delicto, there is no need to lift immunity.

Translated by Zeinab Abdallah

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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