Overturned conviction · 1994
Also known as Our Lady of Deliverance Church bombing · تفجير كنيسة سيدة النجاة
The short answer
A bomb exploded during Sunday Mass at Saydet al-Najat Church in Zouk Mikael, Lebanon, on February 27, 1994, killing 11 people and injuring 54. Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea was arrested and prosecuted, but the bombing trial collapsed, and he was later amnestied in a process widely described as a politically motivated "show trial."
No one's coverage is attached to this file yet.
Know great coverage of this case?
A documentary, a podcast episode, a careful long-form video. Suggest it and an editor will review it before it appears here.
Suggest coverage for 1994 Saydet al-Najat Church bombingOn February 27, 1994, at approximately 9:15 a.m., a bomb detonated under the altar of Saydet al-Najat (Our Lady of Deliverance) Church, a Maronite Catholic church in Zouk Mikael, Lebanon, during Sunday Mass while worshippers were receiving communion from Father Antoine Sfeir. More than 200 people were present in the church. The explosion involved C4 explosives and two 81mm mortar rounds; five other explosives were also found in the building. Ten people were killed immediately and 54 were injured; one of the injured later died, bringing the total death toll to 11.
In the aftermath, the Syrian-backed Lebanese government used the bombing as grounds to dissolve the Christian Lebanese Forces (LF) party and arrest its leader, Samir Geagea. On March 19, 1994, LF offices were raided and six people were arrested, including LF secretary general Fouad Malik and members of the LF intelligence apparatus, as well as two members of the Guardians of the Cedars. Around 150 LF members were subsequently detained, and the LF was formally banned on March 23. Geagea himself was arrested on April 21, 1994. The investigation later expanded to include the murder of political rival Dany Chamoun and his family. Geagea and four others were formally indicted for the church bombing on June 13, 1994, and three days later Geagea and twelve others were indicted for the killing of Chamoun, his wife, and two children.
The church bombing trial opened on November 19, 1994. The case relied heavily on a single witness, Girgis Khuri, and was reportedly weakened by the absence of two other LF figures who were in hiding abroad. Commentators described the evidence against Geagea as largely hearsay and circumstantial. The bombing trial was later postponed in disarray after Khuri withdrew his testimony. Separately, on June 24, 1995, Geagea was convicted in the Chamoun murder case and sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour; two co-defendants received shorter terms, and ten LF members were sentenced in absentia. Amnesty International condemned that case as seriously flawed, being based entirely on circumstantial evidence. On July 13, 1996, Public Prosecutor Adnan Addoum sought the death penalty for Geagea and several co-defendants in connection with the bombing case, and hard labor for life for others.
Geagea, who maintained his innocence and accused the Syrian-Lebanese security apparatus of orchestrating the bombing as a false flag to justify dissolving the LF, spent 11 years in solitary confinement. Following the 2005 withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, the case was widely reexamined. On July 18, 2005, the Lebanese Parliament passed an amnesty law that has been characterized as formally exonerating Geagea, with the 1994 trial subsequently described by historians and legal experts as a "show trial" built on manufactured evidence. Geagea was released from solitary confinement on July 26, 2005.
Bomb explodes under the altar of Saydet al-Najat Church in Zouk Mikael during Sunday Mass, killing 10 people immediately and injuring 54; one later dies, bringing the toll to 11.
Lebanese Forces offices raided; six people arrested including LF secretary general Fouad Malik.
Lebanese Forces party formally banned by the Lebanese government.
Samir Geagea arrested.
Geagea and four others formally indicted for the church bombing.
Geagea and twelve others indicted for the murder of Dany Chamoun, his wife, and two children.
Trial over the church bombing opens.
Geagea found guilty of the murder of Dany Chamoun and his family; sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment with hard labour.
Public Prosecutor Adnan Addoum requests the death penalty for Geagea and others in connection with the bombing case.
Lebanese Parliament passes an amnesty law described as formally exonerating Geagea.
Geagea released from 11 years of solitary confinement.
Victims first. Every legal label is set from public records and court outcomes, not from the prose.
Convicted by Lebanon's Judicial Council of the 1994 Saydet al-Najat church bombing as a member of the four-person Lebanese Forces cell (with Jerjes Khoury, Rushdi Raad, and Tony Oubeid) that carried it out; three of the four were sentenced to death as fugitives and the fourth to life imprisonment.[3]
Convicted by Lebanon's Judicial Council of the 1994 Saydet al-Najat church bombing as a member of the four-person Lebanese Forces cell (with Rushdi Raad, Jean Shahine, and Tony Oubeid) that carried it out; three of the four were sentenced to death as fugitives and the fourth to life imprisonment.[3]
Convicted by Lebanon's Judicial Council of the 1994 Saydet al-Najat church bombing as a member of the four-person Lebanese Forces cell (with Jerjes Khoury, Jean Shahine, and Tony Oubeid) that carried it out; three of the four were sentenced to death as fugitives and the fourth to life imprisonment.[3]
Acquitted in July 1996 by Lebanon's Judicial Council of involvement in the 1994 Saydet al-Najat church bombing; separately sentenced to 18 months in prison for helping organize Lebanese Forces military factions, an unrelated offense.[3]
Arrested and indicted over the church bombing, but that trial collapsed after the sole witness withdrew; separately convicted in 1995 in the Dany Chamoun murder case, a verdict Amnesty International condemned as based on circumstantial evidence; released and, per the Lebanese Parliament's 2005 amnesty law, formally exonerated, with the proceedings widely described as a politically motivated 'show trial'.[3]
From the record
Coverage is not a source: every fact in this file rests on the records below.
Are you family of someone named in this file? Corrections and removal requests from victims’ families are prioritized.
UNSOLVEDListenEl Berbara checkpoint, northern Mount Lebanon, on the Jounieh–Beirut highway · 2000s
Four Iranians — three embassy diplomats and an IRNA photojournalist — were stopped at a checkpoint in northern Lebanon by Lebanese Forces militia on 4 July 1982 and have not been seen since; accounts of their fate remain disputed between claims they were executed by Phalangist forces and claims they were handed to Israel and held alive.
Credit: James BradburyCC BY-SA 4.0SourceSOLVEDListenKataeb Party headquarters, Achrafieh, Beirut, Lebanon · 1980s
On 14 September 1982, a bomb detonated at Kataeb Party headquarters in Achrafieh, Beirut, killing Lebanese president-elect Bashir Gemayel and 23 other party members; the attack was carried out by an SSNP member and led to Israeli occupation of West Beirut and the Sabra and Shatila massacre.
Credit: SassinemichelCC BY-SA 3.0SourceUNSOLVEDListenAchrafieh, Beirut, Lebanon · 2010s
On 19 October 2012, a car bomb in Beirut's Achrafieh district killed Wissam al-Hassan, a brigadier general and intelligence chief of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces, along with his driver and others, in an attack widely linked by Lebanese politicians to Syria and its allies.
Credit: Leonard Brakebill, Oklahoma Air National GuardPublic domainSourceSOLVEDListenAlfred P. Murrah Federal Building, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma · 1995
On April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring more than 680 others in the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history. McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols were convicted in 1997; McVeigh was executed in 2001, and Nichols was sentenced to life without parole.
Credit: Jeanne Boleyn ( talk )Public domainSourceUNSOLVEDListenMarket Street, Omagh, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland · 1998
A car bomb planted by the Real IRA exploded in Omagh, County Tyrone, on 15 August 1998, killing 29 people and injuring about 220, the deadliest single incident of the Troubles.
Credit: евгений измайловCC BY-SA 3.0SourceSOLVEDListenApartment buildings in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk, Russia · 1999
A series of explosions struck apartment blocks in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing more than 300 people and helping trigger the Second Chechen War amid disputed accounts of who was responsible.
