Lebanese ‘killer’ rescued by US on Trump’s orders
A US citizen who claims he is wrongly accused of the kidnap, torture and murder of prisoners during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon was airlifted out of Beirut yesterday on the orders of President Donald Trump.
Amer Fakhoury, 57, was on his way to the United States yesterday having been rescued by an American military aircraft, despite an arrest warrant and order from Lebanese judges that banned him from leaving the country.
Fakhoury is a reviled figure in Lebanon, his birthplace, for his alleged collaboration with Israeli forces who occupied the south of the country between 1982 and 2000. He was nicknamed the Butcher of Khiam after the notorious prison where he is accused of overseeing torture, which he denies. At least 10 people died in the 14 years during which Fakhoury worked there to 2000. His airlift after spending more than six months in a Lebanese jail was confirmed by Trump, who said that rescuing American ‘‘hostages’’ abroad was a priority. ‘‘We’ve been working very hard to get him freed,’’ the president said.
A US Marine Corps V-22 Osprey, a type used by US special forces, had been seen landing and taking off vertically from the US embassy in Beirut yesterday. It later emerged that Fakhoury, who is suffering from cancer, was on board.
He is understood to have been flown to Cyprus, where he boarded another flight to the US. A US official insisted the flight had been legal, despite the arrest warrant by a Lebanese military judge on Wednesday which banned the former militia member from leaving the country for two months.
Trump said that Fakhoury would soon be reunited with his family in New Hampshire and would ‘‘now be able to receive the care and treatment he needs’’ for stage four lymphoma. He added: ‘‘We’re very grateful to the Lebanese government who worked with us,’’ although the authorities in Beirut denied knowing of his departure.
As a former member of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a Christian militia backed by Israel, Fakhoury is accused of overseeing the torture of thousands at the jail in the 1980s and 1990s and being personally involved in the murder of several prisoners. His alleged crimes date back to the occupation of southern Lebanon by the Israeli army after the 1982 Israel-Lebanon war, a period that still inflames sectarian tensions and which inspired the creation of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
Lebanon has opposed the creation of Israel since 1948 and still bans its citizens from travelling there. Fakhoury fled his native country after receiving death threats shortly after Israeli forces withdrew from the country in 2000, eventually opening a restaurant in
Dover, New Hampshire, and obtaining US citizenship. But last September he was arrested and detained on his first return to Lebanon to visit family in nearly 20 years. Lebanon’s intelligence service said he had confessed during questioning to being a warden at Khiam Prison, which was run by the SLA. Fakhoury’s family and his lawyer, however, said he had no direct contact with inmates and was never involved in any interrogation or torture.
On Tuesday a Lebanese court ordered Fakhoury to be released because of the statute of limitations, as more than 10 years had passed since his alleged crimes. He is then understood to have sought refuge at the US embassy as officials prepared to bring him out on medical grounds.
After street protests in Hezbollah-controlled areas, Judge Ghassan Khoury on Wednesday asked the Military Court of Appeals to strike down the earlier ruling, adding that Fakhoury should be tried. Separately, a judge in
Nabatiyeh issued a ruling preventing Fakhoury from leaving Lebanon.
Despite this, US officials took the decision to airlift him. Beirut’s international airport has restricted flights because of coronavirus.
Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic senator from New Hampshire, said the charges against Fakhoury had been unsubstantiated and praised Trump.
‘‘Any time a US citizen is wrongfully detained by a foreign government, we must use every tool at our disposal to free them,’’ she said.
Fakhoury’s daughter Guila Fakhoury said of his release: ‘‘We are so happy. It’s a dream.’’
The US government sent Lebanon US$2.29 billion (NZ$4b) in military assistance between 2005 and 2019. That was temporarily frozen last year because of the influence of Hezbollah, which the US and UK consider a terrorist group, in Lebanese politics. Hezbollah had strongly supported Fakhoury’s prosecution.