Samir Geagea Samir Farid Geagea ( Arabic : سمير فريد جعجع , also spelled Samir Ja ‘ ja ‘ ; born 25 October 1952 ) is a Lebanese politician . He is also a senior figure in the March 14 Alliance , alongside Saad Hariri and Amine Gemayel . He took leadership of the Lebanese Forces in 1986 . After the civil war , there was increased pressure by Syria on Geagea to accept the Syrian presence or face charges . Prior to his arrest , he was contacted by several sympathetic politicians and warned about the forthcoming proceedings and offered safe passage out of Lebanon . In 1994 , four years after the end of the Lebanese Civil War , Geagea was tried for ordering four political assassinations , including the assassination of Lebanon ' s Prime Minister Rashid Karami in 1987 , and the unsuccessful attempted assassination of Defense Minister Michel Murr in 1991 . He denied all charges , but was found guilty and sentenced to four death sentences , each of which was commuted to life in prison . Geagea was imprisoned in solitary confinement below the Lebanese Ministry of Defense building in Beirut for the next 11 years . He is the only Lebanese militia leader to have been imprisoned for crimes committed during the Lebanese Civil War . Following the Cedar Revolution , and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon , a newly elected Lebanese Parliament voted to grant him amnesty on 18 July 2005 . Early life and education . Geagea was born in Ain al Rumanah on 25 October 1952 to a modest Maronite family from the town of Bsharri , Northern Lebanon . His father was an adjutant in the Lebanese Army . He attended " Ecole Bénilde " elementary and secondary school in Furn el - Chebek , which was a free private school . With the aid of a scholarship from the Khalil Gibran association , he studied medicine at the American University of Beirut and then at Saint Joseph University . After the outbreak of civil war in 1975 , Geagea interrupted his five years studies at the American University of Beirut . Although he would later continue his studies at Saint Joseph ' s University for two years , successfully completing his MD , Geagea never practiced medicine . He was an active member of the right - wing Phalangist Party , which became the main Christian fighting force upon the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975 . He is married to Sethrida Geagea . War Period . Geagea steadily rose through the ranks and led several operations at the request of Bachir Gemayel , then commander of the Phalangist Kataeb Regulatory Forces militia . In June 1978 , following the murder of a Phalangist party leader in the North Lebanon called Joud el Bayeh in a power struggle with former president Suleiman Frangieh , Bachir Gemayel ordered Geagea and Elie Hobeika to co - lead a unit to capture the suspects who were taking cover in Frangieh ' s mansion in Ehden . The incident is known as Ehden massacre . The attacking force was met with resistance on the outskirts of Ehden where Geagea was hit . He was somehow transported to Beirut past dozens of Syrian army checkpoints and admitted to Hotel Dieu hospital in Achrafieh where ironically he was doing his internship , his right hand was partially paralyzed and he never continued his education while the military operation resulted in the murder of Tony Frangieh and his family . Geagea was later transported to a hospital in France . Geagea was appointed head of the Lebanese Forces ' militia northern Front in the early 1980s , where he commanded around 1 , 500 battle - hardened soldiers , drawn mainly from his native town of Bsharri and other towns and villages in Northern Lebanon . Geagea led his men in fierce battles against the Syrian Army in El - Koura , Qnat . From 1982 to 1983 , Geagea commanded the Lebanese Forces against Walid Jumblat ' s Progressive Socialist Party militia , the Palestinians , and the Syrians in a battle for control of the Chouf mountains in central Lebanon . Lebanese Forces . On 12 March 1985 , Geagea and Elie hobeika orchestrated an internal coup in order to end the leadership of Fouad Abou Nader in the Lebanese Forces . Abou Nader was considered to be too close to his uncle , president Amin Gemayel whose policies were not accepted by most LF leaders . On 15 January 1986 , Geagea became head of the Lebanese Forces after overthrowing Hobeika , who was widely accused of treachery in the Lebanese Christian sector for agreeing to a Syrian - sponsored accord ( the Tripartite Accord ) . During the following year , Geagea meticulously rebuilt the LF into an organized , well trained and equipped military force , one of the most advanced forces ever on Lebanese soil . He established social security and public services to fill the void that was created by the war - crippled state administration . He also extracted taxes from the Christian region , offered free open - heart operations and twinned Christians cities with foreign cities in Europe and America and tried to open an airport in the Halat region because the Beirut International Airport ( located in the west suburb of Beirut ) was under the control of the Syrian forces which made the access for Lebanese Christians almost impossible . The Post - War period . On 13 October 1990 , Syria ousted General Michel Aoun from the presidential palace in Baabda . Aoun was heading an interim government which filled the void in the absence of a presidential election after the end of President Amin Gemayel ' s term in office . With Aoun out of the picture , Geagea was now the only leader in the Christian heartland . Geagea was subsequently offered ministerial portfolios in the new Lebanese government ( formed on Christmas Eve ) . Relation with the Kataeb party . In addition to being the LF leader , Geagea retained his seat in the Kataeb Politburo . In 1992 , he ran for the Kataeb presidential election but lost to Georges Saadeh with whom the conflict grew . Later that year , Saadeh dismissed Geagea and all members of what was known as the " Rescue Committee " from the party . The committee was formed by several members of the Politburo and districts leaders loyal to the LF and Geagea . Arrest and trial . There was increased pressure by Syria on Geagea to accept the Syrian presence or face charges . Prior to his arrest , he was contacted by several sympathetic politicians and warned about the forthcoming proceedings and offered safe passage out of Lebanon . Geagea refused to leave . The Syrians exploited the vulnerabilities of the amnesty law promulgated by then president Elias Hrawi for all the crimes and atrocities committed before 1990 . This law also stated that any crime committed after that date will void the effect of the amnesty . On 27 February 1994 , a bomb exploded in the Church of Sayyidet Al Najet ( Our Lady of Deliverance ) in the locality of Zouk killing 9 worshipers and injuring many . It is unknown who perpetrated the bombing and it was ultimately attributed to some shadowy groups , but Samir Geagea was accused of the crime solely for the purpose of voiding the effect of the amnesty law of which he benefited , in the same way as all political and militia leaders from other communities and regions were benefiting despite their many unspeakable crimes throughout the Lebanese civil war . On 23 March 1994 , the Lebanese government ordered the dissolution of the LF and Geagea ' s deputy Fouad Malek was taken into custody . Geagea himself was arrested on 21 April 1994 , on charges of ordering the church bombing , of attempting to undermine government authority by " maintaining a militia in the guise of a political party " , of instigating acts of violence , and of committing assassinations during the Lebanese Civil War . He was accused of the assassinations of former prime minister Rashid Karami , National Liberal Party leader Dany Chamoun and his family , and former LF member Elias Al Zayek . He was also accused of attempting to kill Minister Michel Murr . He was acquitted in the church case but given four life sentences in the other cases . Amnesty International criticized Samir Geagea ' s trial and conviction , citing that it was politically motivated and unjust . Imprisonment . Geagea was incarcerated for 11 years in a small windowless solitary cell in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense in Yarze . His health status was jeopardized and he lost weight dramatically due to the unsanitary condition of the ill lit and poorly ventilated prison cell . He was deprived of access to media and the outside world and was only allowed to see his wife and close relatives . All of Geagea ’ s conversations were monitored and he was barred from talking politics with anyone . For the duration of his incarceration , Geagea maintained that he meditated and reviewed his actions during the war to determine if what he did was right . He busied himself with reading literature , Hindu philosophy , Christian theology and mysticism namely the works of Jesuit priest Teilhard de Chardin . Release . Leaders of the Cedar Revolution considered the Geagea trials and sentences to be unjust , politically motivated , and orchestrated by the vassal regime that ruled Lebanon during the Syrian occupation to oust Geagea from the political scene and dismantle the Lebanese Forces . When supporters of the Cedar Revolution won the majority in the 2005 parliamentary elections , they lobbied for an amnesty law to free Geagea from his disputed sentences . The Lebanese Parliament passed an amnesty bill on 18 July 2005 to free Samir Geagea . Given the sectarian balance of Lebanon , three dozens of Islamist criminals were released with Geagea . The bill was subsequently signed by the then president Émile Lahoud . Geagea was released from prison on 26 July 2005 and left Lebanon for medical care . He returned to Lebanon on 25 October ( his birthday ) , and lived in the Cedars region , his ancestral home , in northern Lebanon until 11 December 2006 , after which he moved to a hotel in Bzoummar in Keserwan . On 30 June 2007 , he moved to a new residence in " Me ' arab " , Keserwan . Current political activity . On the Lebanese political scene , Geagea and the LF are considered to be the main Christian component of the March 14 Alliance . In September 2008 , Geagea pronounced in front of thousands of rallying supporters in Jounieh a historical apology . The apology read : Internationally , Geagea tried to renew his relations with influential countries such as the United States and France . On 19 March 2007 , he met then French president Jacques Chirac in the Élysée Palace . In March 2008 , he held talks in the USA with officials at the White House , including then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice , then NSA Stephen Hadley and then chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia Gary Ackerman . Assassination attempt . On 4 April 2012 , at 11h30 - 11h33 am , gunshots were heard in Geagea ' s Ma ' arab Complex . Geagea ' s security forces scouted the area , and found shells belonging to a 12 . 7 caliber sniper rifle , a high - tech rifle produced only by the United States and / or Russia , not available in the Lebanese infantries , the Lebanese Armed Forces or the black market , proving the gun could only be obtained by one powerful party . Speculators claim the perpetrators to be pro - Syrian forces , most likely Hizballah . Account of the story , as described in the press conference immediately following the attempt , claim Geagea to have been walking outside in the garden surrounding his mansion . Geagea bent over to pick up a flower , while bent over , Geagea heard gun shots , and immediately lay low on the ground , while his security forces took care of the situation . At the location where the shot would have killed him , two bullets had pierced through the wall . They claim the shot to have been at least a kilometer away , to have come from the west ( but the body guards were unable to see them due to the thick trees ) , and the operation to have been planned for months , if not ages , to silence Geagea , the only strong vocal critic against the Syrian / Iranian forces and the incumbent government . The Lebanese security forces have uncovered that a nine - member assassination team divided into three groups was involved in the killing attempt ; two of the three groups were in charge of firing on Geagea .