Topic: Samir Geagea

Samir Farid Geagea (Arabic: سمير فريد جعجع, also spelled Samir Ja`ja`), born October 25, 1952, is. He is also a senior figure in the March 14 Alliance, alongside Saad Hariri and Amine Gemayel.

He took leadership of the Lebanese Forces in 1986. After the civil war, there was increased pressure by Syria on Geagea to accept the Syrian presence or face charges. Prior to his arrest, he was contacted by several sympathetic politicians and warned about the forthcoming proceedings and offered safe passage out of Lebanon. In 1994, four years after the end of the Lebanese Civil War, Geagea was tried for ordering four political assassinations, including the assassination of Lebanon's Prime Minister Rashid Karami in 1987, and the unsuccessful attempted assassination of Defense Minister Michel Murr in 1991. He denied all charges, but was found guilty and sentenced to four death sentences, each of which was commuted to life in prison. Geagea was imprisoned in solitary confinement below the Lebanese Ministry of Defense building in Beirut for the next 11 years. He is the only Lebanese militia leader to have been imprisoned for crimes committed during the Lebanese Civil War.

Following the Cedar Revolution, and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, a newly-elected Lebanese Parliament voted to grant him amnesty on July 18, 2005.