Suspect arrested after mortar shell left outside Future TV headquarters in Beirut

Reporters Without Borders voiced solidarity today with Beirut-based Future TV, owned by the family of assassinated former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, after a mortar shell wrapped in a plastic bag was found outside its headquarters on the morning of 24 June. A suspect was arrested later the same day. “We condemn this new attempt to intimidate the Lebanese media,” the organisation said. “We hope the arrest of a suspect will help the police to determine who was behind it.” Future TV editor in chief Imad Assi said: “A shell that was not meant to go off was found in a plastic bag at dawn in front of the main gate of the television building,” located on Spears Street, in west Beirut. “Explosives experts from the internal security forces were sent to the site, and later on military experts took the bomb away,” he said. A suspect was arrested on the evening of 24 June. He was identified thanks to close-circuit TV cameras outside the building. The authorities are now trying to establish whether the detainee acted on instructions from other persons or on his own initiative. They did not reveal his identity to the press. Future TV issued a statement linking the incident to “the series of explosions that Lebanon has witnessed since the start of the terrorist attacks, with the October 2004 attempt on minister Marwan Hamadeh and the Hariri assassination” in February 2005. Security sources said the arrest of a suspect could shed light on other explosives devices found in recent months on the Chouf road, in Koraytem and in Majdalyoun, Sidon, near the Hariri family home. Three journalists were targeted by unsolved bombings last year. Samir Kassir, a columnist with the daily An-Nahar, was killed when his car blew up on 2 June 2005 while An-Nahar general manager Gebran Tueni was killed by a car-bomb on 12 December 2005. Both were well-known and respected journalists who knew they were in danger after the Hariri assassination. May Chidiac, the star presenter of the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation (LBC), was badly maimed when her car blew up on 25 September 2005.