Lebanon's Military Court has pressed charges against 13 Hezbollah members over the seizure of half a tonne of explosives from a vehicle travelling towards Beirut.
Judge Claude Ghanem issued the charges against eight members of the group whose identities are known, including the two occupants of the vehicle – Ali Al Kurdi and Haitham Amhaz – as well as another five whose identities were known only by their aliases. The two men are the only ones of the group currently detained by authorities.
The charges include endangering the security of the state, ignoring government decisions, membership of a banned organisation and possession of firearms and explosives. According to the National News Agency, the penalty for the alleged offences is 10 years' imprisonment.
The seizure of the explosives at a checkpoint in Dahr Al Baidar in the Bekaa Valley earlier this month provoked outrage in Lebanon, where large areas of the south of the country remain under Israeli occupation.
Hezbollah has demanded the release of its operatives and the return of the 250kg of TNT-type explosives and 250kg of C4, which it said were intended for use against the Israelis, with which the Iran-backed group has fought many rounds of conflict since its formation in 1982. But the government has stood firm, refusing to make any handover and insisting it will see the investigation through to the end.
The seizure of the explosives has heightened tensions with Hezbollah, which has repeatedly lambasted a government push to disarm it and criticised the country's leaders for pursuing direct negotiations with Israel. Those tensions are now likely to worsen.
Some cabinet ministers – including Justice Minister Adel Nassar – have sought to have the case heard by the Judicial Council, which oversees national security trials. The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called President Joseph Aoun and urged him to ensure the explosives seized from Hezbollah were not returned, despite its demands.
