George Hawi Wants Geagea Above Ground
July 24, 2003



Communist Leader Undertakes Initiative to Get Geagea Above Ground
The former head of the Lebanese Communist Party, George Hawi, has taken up a determined initiative with Syria to improve the prison conditions of Lebanese Forces commander Samir Geagea at the Lebanese defense ministry compound in Yarze, An Nahar said Thursday.

It quoted Akhbar Al Yom local news agency as saying Hawi met early last week with Geagea's wife at the request of an unnamed high-ranking Syrian official, during which Sitrida Geagea made only one demand; the improvement of her husband's treatment in jail.

Mrs. Geagea specifically requested that her husband be taken out of nine-year solitary confinement in an underground Yarze dungeon to the same room above the ground where the former LF chief of Staff Fuad Malek had been held, complete with newspapers, radio and television sets.

Hawi conveyed Mrs. Geagea's demand but could not yet obtain a clear Syrian response that would enable him to carry good news back to her, the agency said, according to An Nahar.

"Yet she has been seeing a flicker of hope at the end of the tunnel since Patriarch Sfeir told her that she would henceforth be able to see him and talk to him twice a week in Yarze without a watching guard or a glass barrier," the agency said.

It also said that Samir Geagea was allowed for the first time in nine years to see his two nephews at his jail cell last week. "Most of the conversation revolved about the Internet technology wonder that Geagea hasn't seen, yet."

George Hawi led the Lebanese Communist Party during Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war. His militia fought within the Muslim camp against the LF, which then was the Christians' major militia.


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