Syrian officer among five charged for Tripoli blasts
By Youssef Diab, The Daily Star (Lebanon), August 31. 2013

BEIRUT: Lebanon charged five people Friday, including one Syrian intelligence officer and two sheikhs, over the twin Tripoli bombings that killed 47 people last week.

Military Prosecutor Saqr Saqr filed charges against sheikhs Ahmad Gharib and Hashem Minqara as well as informant Mustafa Houri, a judicial source said.

The source said Saqr charged two Syrians, including an intelligence officer, in absentia. The Syrian suspects were identified as Capt. Mohammad Ali Ali, an officer in Syrian intelligence, and Khodr Lutfi al-Airouni.

Saqr charged Gharib and Houri in his court documents with tasking the two Syrians to set up a “monitoring and planning cell to carry out terrorist acts in Lebanon, particularly in the north, by preparing bombs and booby trapping cars and putting them in specific areas, including religious institutions, with the aim of killing and assassinating political and religious figures.”

The two Syrians were charged with “rigging two cars with explosives and placing them, through the help of other individuals, outside Al-Taqwa and Al-Salam Mosques in Tripoli, which left hundreds killed or wounded.” [....]

Lebanon claims Syria link to Tripoli bombs that killed 47
By Bradley Hope, The National (UAE), August 31, 2013

BEIRUT // A Syrian intelligence operative and a cleric with ties to the Syrian regime were among five men charged with bombing two mosques in Tripoli, Lebanese media said yesterday [....]

Military prosecutor Saqr Saqr accused two Sunni sheikhs who support the regime of Bashar Al Assad of working with two Syrians to set up a "cell to carry out terrorist acts in Lebanon, particularly in the north, by preparing bombs and booby trapping cars and putting them in specific areas, including religious institutions with the aim of killing and assassinating political and religious figures", according to a statement quoted by Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper.

Sheikh Ahmad Gharib, organised the attack, according to the charges, while Sheikh Minqara, the head of a pro-Assad Islamist group in Lebanon, was charged with withholding information about the cell [....]