Lebanon: CFWIJ Welcomes Release Of American Journalist Nada Homsi

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December 11, 2021, Beirut - The Coalition For Women In Journalism welcomes the release of American freelance journalist Nada Homsi, who was detained by Lebanese authorities last month. The detention brought widespread condemnation by international human rights groups, who noted that the journalist was arrested on November 16, 2021 after a raid without a judicial order by members of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate. The Coalition For Women In Journalism condemns Nada’s arbitrary detention for three weeks and welcomes her release. 

Nada was released on Wednesday, December 8, 2021 shortly after pressure from international rights groups surmounted. The public prosecutor had initially ordered her release on November 25 but General Security issued a deportation order for her and kept her in detention for unspecified “security reasons”. Such reasons for the raid on the journalist and her subsequent detention were not clarified through-out the three-week period. 

“I feel good that I’m free but I shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place,” Nada told the Associated Press, adding that her arrest was part of an intimidation campaign by Lebanese security agencies against foreign journalists “so that they can’t cover things that are happening in Lebanon”.

Taking to Twitter after her release, Nada said, “I’m out! Released yesterday evening after 23 days in detention.Thank you to everyone for your support. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I was released hours after my case went public”.

According to Nada’s lawyer, Diala Chehade, on Wednesday, the efforts to deport the journalist were abandoned and her documents were returned to her. 

Chehade said Homsi was charged for drug possession after General Security officers found a small amount of cannabis during the raid at her home. But media reports cited officers as saying that the journalist was being held for “security reasons”. 

No security or military charges were filed against Nada, despite the officers claiming that the raid at her home was based on security intelligence gathered by their information unit, according to rights groups. 

Two days after her release, the media reported that Lebanon’s General Security said through a statement that Nada had been arrested for having entered and stayed in occupied Palestinian terriroties. The statement further added that “by order from the military general prosecutor's office” and found “an Israeli booklet containing an Israeli card, Israeli banknotes, war ammunition, 41 bags, two empty smoke bombs and a quantity of hashish.”

The journalist denounced the General Security Directorate’s statement as an attempt to misrepresent and distort her image to defend the illegal procedures initiated against her 

“Their statement portrays me as an Israeli spy, a terrorist/weapons dealer, and a drug lord, which while ridiculous is also frankly dangerous to my physical safey,” Nada, who had been working with US media outlet National Public Radio(NPR) when she was detained, wrote on Twitter.

General Security officers are deployed at Lebanon’s border crossings, ports and the country’s only international airport. Following the raid last month, the department that typically deals with foreigners regarding visas and residency permits, called the public prosecutor for further legal action. The prosecutor issued arrest warrants for Nada and her partner, a Palestinian national. The officers then confiscated her electronics and some documents, said Chehade. 

Nada was one of the journalists who had to evacuate her home due to the damage caused by the devastating explosion in Beirut port on August 4, 2020 that killed more than 150 people and wounded thousands.

The Coalition For Women In Journalism welcomes Nada Homsi’s release. We join the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International in condemning her arbitrary detention and the unwarranted raid at her home. We are deeply concerned over the circumstances surrounding Nada’s detention and the attempts to distort her image. We call for an independent and transparent inquiry into the matter.