(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to Minister of the Interior Elias al-Murr, RSF protested the shadowing of Samir Kassir, editor of the daily Al-Nahar, and the confiscation of his passport. RSF Secretary-General Robert M�nard asked the minister "to intervene with the concerned services so that the journalist's passport is returned" and to "put a stop to the shadowing." "It is worrying to see that the Lebanese authorities are now resorting to this kind of practice to intimidate an accredited journalist," added Ménard.
According to information collected by RSF, on 28 March 2001, Kassir's passport was confiscated by state security officers as he was returning from Amman, where he attended the Arab summit. According to the journalist, the officers explained that they had to "verify the conditions in which the passport was obtained." On 16 March, the journalist wrote an editorial in which he criticised recent actions by the armed forces and security services in the country. On 24 March, the day he left for Amman, as well as on 28 and 29 March, the journalist was followed throughout the day by unmarked police cars. The journalist also says that neighbours "told him that they were interrogated about [him]" on 19 March. Last year, the director of state security services, General Jamil Al-Sayeed, called the journalist and threatened him following the publication of an article in Al-Nahar in which the journalist criticised the intelligence services' inability to prevent incidents which arose between the army and armed Islamic groups in the country's north.
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