BEIRUT - Lebanon's press court fined two staunchly anti-Syrian newsmen Thursday for libelling under-fire pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, judicial sources said.
Al-Mustaqbal daily director Toufic Khattab and journalist Zahi Wehbeh received fines of 50 million Lebanese pounds (more than 33,000 dollars) each for having "libelled and damaged the reputation of President Lahoud" in a 2005 article, the sources said.
The paper is owned by the family of the late former prime minister Rafiq Hariri, who was killed in a February 2005 bombing widely blamed on Syria and its local allies.
"Of course I'm going to lodge an appeal," Khattab said, playing down the significance of the press court's verdict.
The offending article headlined: "His Excellency the Murderer," was published in June 2005 a few days after the murder of anti-Syrian journalist Samir Kassir.
Wehbeh's lawyer, Fuad Shbaklo, argued that the headline could not be taken as a reference to the president as an official decree had long since forbidden the use of such terms of respect for the head of state.
The legitimacy of Lahoud's presidency has been challenged by anti-Syrian politicians ever since it was extended by three years through a controversial Damascus-inspired constitutional amendment in 2004.
Lahoud in turn has refused to recognise the rump anti-Syrian cabinet of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora since six pro-Damascus ministers quit last November.
