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Journalist Bassil Serves Out 30
Months in Jail for Anti-SyriaAgitation
Lebanese
journalist Antoine Bassil has been set free from Roumieh prison
after serving out a 30-month jail term passed by a Beirut
military tribunal on a charge of collaborating with Israel and
agitating against Syria.
"I am
in a state of weightlessness, I feel like one who is coming out
of a coma," said Bassil, 52, as he walked out of the
prison's gate to a warm reception by his family and fellow
journalists on Monday.
He hugged
his wife Reine, who was in tears, his son Serge and daughter
Nancy before traveling in a motorcade to his home in Mansourieh.
The entrance
was drowned in flower bouquets.
"I
intend to go back to journalism. I am a professional and I hope
I would not be forced to leave Lebanon to seek a job abroad,"
Bassil said in an interview highlighted by An Nahar Tuesday.
"I feel like a tourist returning to his country from a
prolonged absence."
Bassil, who
worked for a pro-Israeli television station during Israel's
occupation of South Lebanon, was arrested in a two-week security
crackdown in August 2001 that netted about 250 Christian
activists opposed to Syria's military presence in Lebanon.
Bassil
visited the grave of his father, who died while he was in prison
and prayed in a memorial mass held at a Mansourieh church.
Beirut, Updated 17 Feb 04, 14:20 |
