BEIRUT // A Lebanese court sentenced a former minister with close ties to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad to nine years and nine months in prison on Friday, after a retrial on charges of smuggling explosives and planning attacks.
Former information minister Michel Samaha was detained in August 2012 and sentenced to a shorter term last year.
The longer sentence was set at 13 years, but in Lebanon a prison year is equivalent to nine months.
Samaha had been freed on bail in January pending the retrial.
* Reuters
