"Christian Warlord Released in Lebanon"

[GreenPartyVoter]

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A notorious anti-Syrian Christian warlord was released Tuesday after 11 years in prison, the latest reconciliatory step in civil war-scarred Lebanon after the recent collapse of Syria's military dominance.

Before flying to France for a medical checkup, Samir Geagea, who had been serving three life sentence for murdering several people including a former pro-Syrian premier, urged Lebanese in a nationally televised speech that was also broadcast throughout the Middle East to put the country's 1975-90 civil war era behind them.

"You have come out of the big prison which you had been put in, and you have taken me out with the same act from the small prison which I have been put in," said Samir Geagea, in reference to April's Syrian military withdrawal, during his first public address since being imprisoned in 1994.

"They were long, dark, black years," he said during an emotional speech at Beirut's international airport attended by several hundred applauding politicians, clergymen, supporters and journalists.

http://apnews1.iwon.com/article/20050726/D8BJ6V5G0.html