Ten Lebanese and a Palestinian who were among the 54 political prisoners repatriated to Lebanon earlier this week from Syria were released late Friday, judicial sources said.
"Nobody can understand the way we are feeling. I am still here at the Judicial Palace and I feel ecstatic," Ali Abu Dehen, who hails from the mostly Druze Hasbaya district in southern Lebanon, told AFP.
"I spent 13 years in jail in Syria. I had three very young children when I was jailed and I am terrified at the idea of not being able to recognize them. I don't know what to do," he said, breaking into tears.
Prosecutor General Adnan Addum decided earlier Friday in accordance with Lebanese law to release the 10 Lebanese because more than 10 years have passed on the crimes they are accused of, judicial sources said.
A Palestinian who has Lebanese travel documents was released because of lack of evidence, they said.
The prisoners had been facing charges of spying for Israel, killing Syrian troops deployed in Lebanon, carrying out explosions and falsifying documents, the sources said.
The 10 Lebanese had been serving jail sentences in Syria, ranging between 10 years and life imprisonment, while the Palestinian had not been tried there.
Addum also referred eight Lebanese to the military court for prosecution on charges of collaboration with Israeli intelligence services and the now-disbanded Israeli-allied South Lebanon Army militia, as well as having undergone training courses in Israel, the sources said.
Two more Lebanese were referred to a civilian court in northern Lebanon for trial on charges of killing Syrian servicemen in Lebanon, they said.
According to Lebanese law, repatriated prisoners should be retried at home, but if found guilty the time served in jails abroad count toward the sentences ordered by Lebanese courts.
On Monday, 46 Lebanese and eight Palestinians holding Lebanese travel documents were repatriated in an attempt to close the controversial case of Lebanese held by neighboring Syria.
Addum declared Thursday that the file on the prisoners was closed after releasing the names of 93 Lebanese still imprisoned by Damascus for non-political crimes.
But Lebanese family associations claim that hundreds of Lebanese are still being held in Syria and have called for a commission to investigate the fate of those they say are unaccounted for.
Lebanese authorities have claimed that all those missing since the country's 1975-1990 civil war had been killed then by various militias.
President Emile Lahoud decided earlier Friday to propose at the next cabinet session to set up a mechanism to determine the fate of those still missing from information provided by their relatives -- BEIRUT (AFP)
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