Hitti Summons Shea over Fakhoury’s Case

Foreign Minister Nasif Hitti summoned the US ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea and listened to an explanation on how Amer Fakhoury was carried away out of the country from the U.S. embassy, the National News Agency reported on Friday.

On Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump has confirmed that former Khiyam Prison warden Fakhoury was released to the United States, where he is a naturalized citizen.

Video footage circulated on social media in parallel with Fakhoury’s release showing an American helicopter flying over Beirut’s northern suburb, the location of the US embassy.

Lebanese-American, Fakhoury was on his way back to the U.S. after a judge in Lebanon ordered him released. Fakhoury had been accused of torturing prisoners at a jail run by an Israeli-backed militia two-decades ago. He had been imprisoned since September after returning to Lebanon to visit family.

Trump said that Fakhoury, was suffering from late-stage cancer, and he “will now be able to receive the much needed care and treatment in the United States."

"We've been working very hard to get him freed. He's finally able to have his entire family at his side," Trump told reporters at the start of a daily news conference on the coronavirus pandemic.

"The United States has no higher priority than the safety and well-being of our citizens," he said.

"I'm very grateful to the Lebanese government. They worked with us," Trump added.