Samir Geagea

Samir Farid Geagea (Arabic: سمير فريد جعجع, also Samir Ja`ja`) born October 25, 1952 is the leader of the right wing Lebanese Forces (LF) political party. He was controversially tried and imprisoned for 11 years in solitary confinement for war crimes and later pardoned by the newly-elected Lebanese Parliament in 2005. He is currently one of the leaders of March 14 Alliance alongside Saad Hariri, Walid Jumblatt and Amine Gemayel.
Early life and education
Geagea was born in Beirut in 1952 to a Maronite family from the town of Bsharri, Northern Lebanon. His father was an adjutant in the Lebanese Army and his mother a housewife. He attended "Ecole Bénilde" elementary and secondary school in Furn el-Chebek, which was a free private school. With the aid of a scholarship from the Khalil Gibran association, he studied medicine for two years at the American University of Beirut and then continued his studies at Saint Joseph University because of the war. He was an active member of the right-wing Phalangist Party, which became the main Christian fighting force upon the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975.

War Period
Geagea steadily rose through the ranks and led several daring operations at the request of Bashir Gemayel, then commander of the Phalangist militia. In 1978, following the murder of a Phalangist party leader in the North Lebanon called Joud el Bayeh in a power struggle with former president Suleiman Frangieh, Bachir Gemayel ordered Geagea and Elie Hobeika to co-lead a unit to capture the suspects who were taking cover in Frangieh's mansion in Ehden. The convoy was ambushed on the way and Geagea was hit and admitted to Hotel Dieu hospital in Achrafieh where ironically he was doing his internship, his right hand was partially paralyzed and he never continued his formation while the military operation resulted in the murder of Tony Frangieh and his family.

Lebanese Forces
Geagea was appointed head of the Lebanese Forces' militia northern Front in the early 1980s, where he commanded around 1,500 battle-hardened soldiers, drawn mainly from his native town of Bsharri and other towns and villages in Northern Lebanon. Geagea led his men in fierce battles against the Syrian Army during the siege of Zahle in 1980-1981. In 1982-1983, Geagea commanded the Lebanese Forces against Walid Jumblat's PSP militia, the Palestinians, and the Syrians in a ruthless battle for the control of the Chouf mountains in central Lebanon.
In March 1985, Geagea and Elie Hobeika orchestrated an internal coup in order to end the leadership of Fouad Abou Nader in the Lebanese Forces. Abou Nader was considered to be too close to his uncle, president Amine Gemayel whose policies were not accepted by most LF leaders. In 1986, Geagea became head of the Lebanese Forces after overthrowing Hobeika, who was widely accused of treachery in the Lebanese Christian sector for agreeing to a Syrian-sponsored accord (the Tripartite Agreement). During the following year, Geagea meticulously rebuilt the LF into an organized, well trained and equipped military force. He established social security and public services to fill the void that was created by the war-crippled state administration. He also extracted taxes from the Christian region, offered free open-heart operations and twinned Christians cities with foreign cities in Europe and America and tried to open an airport in the Halat region because the Beirut International Airport (located in the west suburb of Beirut) was under the control of the Syrian forces which made the access for Lebanese Christians almost impossible.

The Post-War Period and Criminal Charges
On October 13, 1990, Aoun was ousted from the presidential palace in Baabda. With Aoun out of the picture, Geagea was now the only leader in the Christian heartland. Geagea was subsequently offered ministerial portfolios in the new Lebanese government but refused them under the basis that the government was under Syrian control. There was increased pressure by Syria on Geagea to accept the Syrian presence or face persecution. Prior to his arrest, he was contacted by several sympathetic politicians and warned about the forthcoming proceedings and offered safe passage out of Lebanon. Geagea refused to leave. On February 27, 1994, a bomb exploded in the Church of Sayyidet Al Najet and killed ten worshippers.[1] The LF were suspected and on March 23, 1994, the Lebanese government ordered the dissolution of the LF and Geagea's deputy Fouad Malek was taken into custody.[2] Geagea himself was arrested on April 21, 1994, on charges of ordering the church bombing, of attempting to undermine government authority by "maintaining a militia in the guise of a political party", of instigating acts of violence, and of committing assassinations during the Lebanese Civil War. He was accused of the assassinations of Former Prime Minister Rashid Karami, National Liberal Party leader Dany Chamoun and his family, and former LF member Elias Al Zayek. He was also accused of attempting to kill Minister Michel Murr. He was acquitted in the church's case but given four life sentences in the other cases. Amnesty International criticized Samir Geagea's trial and conviction, citing that it was politically motivated, unjust and done under Syrian interference. Geagea was held for 11 years in a small windowless cell in solitary in the basement of the Ministry of Defense in Yarze before Members and followers of the Cedar Revolution considered Geagea trials and sentences as being unjust and politically motivated, mainly orchestrated by the regime that ruled Lebanon during the Syrian hegemony period to oust Geagea from the political scene and dismantle the Lebanese Forces party. Ironically, many of the leaders in the March 14 coalition who orchestrated his removal from prison had been the same ones to acquiesce to his imprisonment during the years of Syrian occupation. When the Cedar Revolution won the majority in the 2005 parliamentary elections, they formulated an amnesty law to free Geagea from his disputed sentences, right after the 2005 elections. The Lebanese Parliament passed a law in the form of an amnesty bill on 18 July 2005 to free Samir Geagea. It was subsequently signed by President Emile Lahoud. [3] Geagea was released from prison on July 26, 2005 and left Lebanon for medical tests. [4] He returned to Lebanon on October 25 (his birthday), and lived in the Cedars region in northern Lebanon until December 11, 2006, after which he moved to an hotel in Bzoummar in Keserwan. On June 30, 2007, he moved to a new residence in "Me'arab", Keserwan.