US journalist freed in Lebanon after call by rights groups
Source: AP
By BASSEM MROUE
BEIRUT (AP) Lebanese authorities released Wednesday a freelance American journalist who was detained in Beirut last month, hours after two international human rights groups called her detention arbitrary and demanded that she be set free, her lawyer said.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said that Nada Homsi was arrested on Nov. 16 by members of Lebanons General Security Directorate without a judicial order. The reasons for the raid remain unknown and her detention is now arbitrary, the groups said.
Nada is at home and the decision to deport her has been dropped, Homsis lawyer, Diala Chehade, told The Associated Press, adding that all her papers and documents were given back to her.
Chehade said earlier that the security force that raided Homsis apartment found a small amount of cannabis. Chehade said the officers then called the public prosecutor, who issued an arrest warrant for Homsi and her partner, a Palestinian national. The officers confiscated her electronics and some documents, she said.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-media-lebanon-arrests-journalists-6778b6c187dcf07c7534bb3081efa1d3