(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to Minister of the Interior Elias al-Murr, RSF
protested the shadowing of Samir Kassir, editor of the daily Al-Nahar, and
the confiscation of his passport. RSF Secretary-General Robert MÈnard asked
the minister "to intervene with the concerned services so that the
journalist's passport is returned" and to "put a stop to the shadowing." "It
is worrying to see that the Lebanese authorities are now resorting to this
kind of practice to intimidate an accredited journalist," added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, on 28 March 2001, Kassir's
passport was confiscated by state security officers as he was returning from
Amman, where he attended the Arab summit. According to the journalist, the
officers explained that they had to "verify the conditions in which the
passport was obtained." On 16 March, the journalist wrote an editorial in
which he criticised recent actions by the armed forces and security services
in the country. On 24 March, the day he left for Amman, as well as on 28 and
29 March, the journalist was followed throughout the day by unmarked police
cars. The journalist also says that neighbours "told him that they were
interrogated about [him]" on 19 March. Last year, the director of state
security services, General Jamil Al-Sayeed, called the journalist and
threatened him following the publication of an article in Al-Nahar in which
the journalist criticised the intelligence services' inability to prevent
incidents which arose between the army and armed Islamic groups in the
country's north.
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