القضاء الأميركي يرفض طلب اللواء عباس إبراهيم، رفع اسمه من ملف الدعوى المقدمة من عائلة الضحية عامر فاخوري، ضد إيران، وحزب الله، والأمن العام اللبناني، بتهمة خطف وتعذيب فاخوروي والتسبب بوفاته/Video Report/Amer Fakhoury Foundation/U.S. Judge: Director of Lebanese General Security’s Request is Rejected, Case Moves Forward
Family to proceed with suit alleging man tortured in Lebanon CONCORD, N.H. (AP)/August 17/2022
Amer Fakhoury Foundation/U.S. Judge: Director of Lebanese General Security’s Request is Rejected, Case Moves Forward Amer Fakhoury Foundation/August 16/2022 Press Release
القضاء الأميركي يرفض طلب اللواء عباس إبراهيم رفع اسمه من ملف الدعوى المقدمة من عائلة الضحية عامر فاخوري ضد إيران وحزب الله والأمن العام اللبناني بتهمة خطف وتعذيب فاخوري والتسبب بوفاته
مؤسسة عامر فاخوري/16 آب/2022 أصدرت مؤسسة عامر فاخوري اليوم بياناً تتناول فيه آخر تطورات الدعوى المقدمة في أميركا من عائلة عامر فاخوري ضد إيران وحزب الله والأمن العام اللبناني، في أسفل أهم ما جاء فيه. رفض القضاء الأميركي طلب مدير الأمن العام اللبناني، العماد عباس إبراهيم، شطب اسمه من دعوى عائلة الضحية عامر فاخوري ضد إيران وحزب الله ومؤسسة الأمن العام اللبناني. هذا وتتابع بإصرار وعزيمة العائلة ملاحقة الدعوى القضائية التي قدمتها ضد إيران وحزب الله والأمن العام اللبناني، بسبب سجن عامر فاخوري، والتسبب في وفاته، على الرغم من احتجاج مدير الأمن العام اللبناني اللواء عباس إبراهيم، ورفض القاضي الأميركي الناظر بالدعوى، شطب اسمه من القضية. فبعد رفع دعوى العائلة ضد إيران، وبعد أن أصبحت جزءاً من السجل العام القضائي في أميركا، قدم اللواء عباس إبراهيم طلبًا لإزالة اسمه، واسم الأمن العام اللبناني من الدعوى، حيث تعرض عامر فاخوري للتعذيب. حجته هي أن ذكر اسمه يضرب سمعته في الولايات المتحدة. ولحسن حظ عائلة فاخوري فقد رفض القاضي طلب اللواء عباس إبراهيم وتدخله بهدف شطب اسمه من الشكوى. ابنة الضحية زويا فاخوري علقت قائلة: “يسعدنا أن الشكوى ضد الجناة ستستمر كما تم رفعها”. وإبنته ماسي فاخوري أضافت: “من خلال هذه الدعوى، ستكون لدينا فرصة لتحقيق العدالة ولو جزئياً في جريمة التعذيب الوحشي الذي تعرض له والدي على يد مسؤولين لبنانيين وعملاء إيرانيين أدت إلى وفاته”. هذا وتوضح الوقائع الواردة في الشكوى كيف تم تعذيب الرهينة الأمريكي- اللبناني الراحل، عامر فاخوري، في الأمن العام اللبناني، بتوجيه من اللواء عباس إبراهيم، وكيف أُجبر عامر على توقيع وثائق مزورة استُخدمت فيما بعد لاحتجازه بشكل غير قانوني لمدة 7 أشهر. وقد أدى التعذيب الذي تعرض له عامر في الأمن العام اللبناني، وسوء المعاملة التي تلته في سجن المحكمة العسكرية، إلى وفته بعد شهور قليلة من إطلاق سراحه. محامي العائلة روبرت تولشين قال: نحن متشجعون للغاية لأن المحكمة رفضت تدخل وطلب الأمن العام اللبناني إبطال شكوانا، حيث أن القاضي وجد وبشكل صحيح أن مزاعمنا عن صلات الأمن العام وحزب الله تدخل في صميم قضيتنا الواقعية ويجب السماح بالنظر فيها ومتابعتها. وأشار المحامي إلى أن اللواء عباس إبراهيم حاول جاهدًا إخفاء تورط الأمن العام وإبطال قضيتنا لكن المحكمة لم توافق على طلبه. وانهى قائلاً: نتفهم تماما مدى قلق لبنان من أن يكشف هذا الإجراء المدني عن الدور الذي لعبه المسؤولون في الاعتقال والتعذيب غير القانونيين للمواطن الأمريكي عامر فاخوري في بيروت. ونحن مصممون على السعي لتحقيق العدالة وفضح جميع الجرائم التي تورط فيها الإيرانيون والأمن العام. يبقى أنه مع اقتراب الذكرى الثانية لذكرى وفاة عامر فاخوري، يعتبر هذا الإنجاز القضائي فوزًا كبيرًا وخطوة مهمة نحو المساءلة.
*نص وصياغة وترجمة موقع المنسقية بحرية وتصرف كاملين
Amer Fakhoury Foundation/U.S. Judge: Director of Lebanese General Security’s Request is Rejected, Case Moves Forward Amer Fakhoury Foundation/August 16/2022 Press Release Request by The Director of the Lebanese General Security, General Abbas Ibrahim, for his name to be removed from the Fakhoury vs. Iran Lawsuit was denied by a U.S. District Court Judge Washington, DC – The Family of Amer Fakhoury moves forward with Lawsuit against Iran over Amer Fakhoury’s jailing and death, despite unsuccessful protest from the Director of the Lebanese General Security, General Abbas Ibrahim. After the family’s lawsuit against Iran was filed and became part of the public record General Abbas Ibrahim filed a motion to remove his name from the complaint and the name of the facility in Lebanon where Amer Fakhoury was tortured. His argument was that this ruins his reputation in the United States. Fortunately for the Fakhoury Family, the judge denied General Abbas’s motion to intervene and strike his name from the complaints. “We are pleased that the complaint against the perpetrators will proceed as it was filed,” said Zoya Fakhoury. “Through this process we will have the opporunity to bring some justice to for Amer’s brutal torture by Lebanese officials and agents of Iran that resulted in his death,” added Macy Fakhoury. The facts presented in the complaint explain how the late US hostage was tortured in the Lebanese General Security directed by General Abbas Ibrahim and how he was forced to sign false documents that were later used to illegally detain him for 7 months. The torture he received in the Lebanese General Security, and the maltreatment that followed in the military prison led to the death of Amer Fakhoury few months after he was released. Attorney Robert Tolchin stated: “We are very encouraged that the Court dismissed the Lebanese intelligence agency, the GDGS’ motion to intervene and strike our complaint. The judge correctly found that our allegations of the GDGS’s connections to Iran and Hezbollah go to the very heart of our factual case and must be allowed to be adjudicated. Abbas Ibrahim tried very hard to conceal his agency’s involvement and squelch our case but the court wasn’t having it. We fully understand how concerned Lebanon must be that this civil proceeding will reveal the role it’s officials played in the illegal arrest and torture of American citizen Amer Farkhoury in Beirut. And we are determined to pursue Justice and expose all the crimes that the Iranians and the GDGS engaged in.” As Amer Fakhoury’s second year memorial is approaching, this is a big win and a big step towards accountability.
Full Support To Amer Fkhoury’s Family Elias Bejjani/August 16/2022 May Almighty God Bless, Amer Fakhoury’s soul, help His devoted, loving and courageous Family to bring justice to all that concerns his case, and put those who were behind his arrest, torture and death on trial to be accountable for their horrible crimes. Full support to Fakhoury Family
Grace Finerman/WMUR NEWS 9/News Anchor/Reporter/ August 16/2022 MANCHESTER, N.H. — https://www.wmur.com/amp/article/lebanon-amer-fakhoury-death-lawsuit/40907872 A lawsuit against Iran filed by the family of a New Hampshire man who died shortly after being released from Lebanese custody will continue.Amer Fakhoury died in the United States in August 2020 of Stage 4 lymphoma. Last year, his family filed a lawsuit in Washington against Iran, claiming he developed the illness and other medical issues while imprisoned during a visit to Lebanon. The family claims Lebanon was operating at the behest of Iran. Fakhoury was detained in Lebanon in 2019 after going back to the country decades after he had originally left. The government in Lebanon took him into custody, claiming he had been involved in murder and torture years before, which he denied. He was eventually released by the Lebanese Supreme Court and returned to the United States, but he died several months later. His family sued Iran, saying they controlled the situation in Lebanon.This week, a judge ruled that the case will continue against Iran and denied Lebanon’s request to remove a Lebanese general and the country’s name from the lawsuit. The Fakhoury family said the ruling is a win because of the way the overall case is developing. “The judge denied the (General Directorate of) General Security and Gen. Abbas Ibrahim motion to remove Lebanon and their name from the lawsuit because these are facts,” said Gulia Fahoury, Amer Fakhoury’s daughter. “My father was tortured in Lebanon …, and we’re happy to say the judge took the right decision, and now the case is moving forward.”The family has created a foundation focused on accountability and financially helping families of illegally detained people or hostages.
Family to proceed with suit alleging man tortured in Lebanon CONCORD, N.H. (AP)/August 17/2022 Relatives of a Lebanese American man said they are happy to proceed with their lawsuit alleging that Lebanon’s security agency kidnapped and tortured him before he died in the U.S., now that a judge has rejected the agency’s attempt to strike the allegations. Amer Fakhoury died in the United States in August 2020 at age 57 from stage 4 lymphoma. His family says in the lawsuit, filed in Washington last year against Iran, says he developed the illness and other serious medical issues while imprisoned during a visit to Lebanon over decades-old murder and torture charges that he denied. Lawyers representing Lebanon’s General Directorate of General Security had asked to intervene in the wrongful death lawsuit to have the allegations against it stricken. Lebanon is not named as a defendant. In its filing, the Lebanese security agency claimed the lawsuit falsely accuses it and its director of “serious crimes of kidnapping, torture and killing at the direction or aid of alleged terrorist organizations.” It sought to strike the allegations. A federal judge denied that request in an order Monday. He said the family’s allegations about Fakhoury’s detention and the ties between Iran, Lebanon, and Hezbollah — a dominant political and militant force in Lebanon described in the family’s lawsuit as an “instrument” of Iran — have “obviously offended” the agency. But he said the claims are “not irrelevant to plaintiffs’ litigation against Iran — they lie at the heart of plaintiffs’ complaint.” The family is encouraged to go forward with their lawsuit. “We are pleased that the complaint against the perpetrators will proceed as it was filed,” said Zoya Fakhoury, one of Amer Fakhoury’s four daughters, said in a family statement Tuesday. The security director “tried very hard to conceal his agency’s involvement and squelch our case but the court wasn’t having it,” the family’s attorney, Robert Tolchin, said in the statement. David Lin, an attorney representing the security agency, said in a statement, “We are weighing all options, including the possibility of appealing the court’s decision or filing an affirmative defamation suit.” He added, “Our client will continue to defend his reputation against unfounded attacks.” Iran has yet to respond to the lawsuit. It has ignored others filed against it in American courts in the wake of the 1979 Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy hostage crisis. Fakhoury’s imprisonment in Lebanon took place in September 2019, not long after he became an American citizen. Fakhoury, a restaurateur in New Hampshire, visited his home country on vacation for the first time in nearly 20 years. A week after he arrived, he was jailed and his passport was seized, his family has said. The day before he was taken into custody, a newspaper close to the Iranian-backed Shiite group Hezbollah published a story accusing him of playing a role in the torture and killing of inmates at a prison run by an Israeli-backed Lebanese militia during Israel’s occupation of Lebanon two decades ago. Fakhoury was a member of the South Lebanon Army. The article dubbed him the “butcher” of the Khiam Detention Center, which was notorious for human rights abuses. Fakhoury’s family said that he had worked at the prison as a member of the militia, but that he was a clerk who had little contact with inmates. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Fakhoury left the country, like many other militia members who feared reprisals. He arrived in the U.S. in 2001. As early as 2018, Fakhoury had sought assurances from the U.S. State Department and the Lebanese government that he could visit Lebanon freely. His family said he was told there were no accusations against him in Lebanon or no legal matters that might interfere with his return. Upon his return to Lebanon, Fakhoury was held for five months before he was formally charged, his family said. By then, he had dropped more than 60 pounds and had lymphoma and rib fractures, among other serious health problems, they said. Eventually, the Lebanese Supreme Court dropped the charges against Fakhoury. He was returned to the United States on March 19, 2020, on a U.S. Marine Corps Osprey aircraft. He died five months later.
