Lebanese billionaire faces treason charge over dinner with Netanyahu
Influential Lebanese politician and businessman Antoun Sehnaoui may face a military tribunal over his contacts with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He dined with him on July 27 at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington.
As the Naharnet news portal reported, Lebanon's Prosecutor General Ahmed Rami al-Hajj issued an arrest warrant for Sehnaoui for violating the law on the boycott of the Jewish state, which has been in force since 1955. Under judicial procedure, the case will be transferred in 30 days to a military tribunal, which may charge him with treason.
The billionaire, who has been put on the wanted list, is considered on the political scene to be a staunch supporter of normalizing relations with Israel. He currently lives mainly in the United States with his partner Morgan Ortagus, who previously served as deputy special envoy of the U.S. president to the Middle East. According to the portal, Sehnaoui facilitated the establishment of direct bilateral talks between Lebanon and Israel in Washington, where a framework agreement was signed on June 26 under U.S. auspices.
On July 27, at an evening dedicated to the memory of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, the Lebanese billionaire and Ortagus, who accompanied him, found themselves at the same table with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara. The first to report this was Barak Ravid, a columnist for the American outlet Axios. The photograph he posted provoked angry protest among supporters of the Shiite organization Hezbollah. As a result, no fewer than 20 lawyers demanded that Sehnaoui be immediately put on trial for "criminal ties with the enemy."
The scandal has put Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in a difficult position, as he advocates continuing peace talks with Israel with the aim of freeing the country's southern regions from occupation. The seventh round of bilateral consultations will take place on August 4-6 in Rome. So far, there has been no official reaction from the presidential office to the warrant issued by the prosecutor general.
Since 2007, Sehnaoui has held the post of chairman of the board of directors of the banking group Société Générale de Banque au Liban (SGBL), and also heads the European Banque Richelieu. He is known as a film producer, including of Oscar-nominated films, and is engaged in the media business. In April, together with Ortagus, he took part as a sponsor in an event held at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Source: TASS
