The Unease of Michel Samaha: An Intervention In a Court Case

Attend “The Unease of Michel Samaha: An Intervention In A Court Case” a reading performance in Arabic by Chaza Charafeddine and Roger Outa at Zoukak Studio.

On August 9, 2012, former minister and deputy Michel Samaha was arrested on charges of plotting a terrorist act in North Lebanon. Given the overwhelming evidence for his involvement, he confessed to transporting explosives in his car from Damascus to his home in Ashrafieh, where he delivered them to the double agent Milad Kfouri who in turn was supposed to plant the explosives in determined locations in the city of Tripoli and in the Akkar region, in collaboration with a terrorist group.

During his interrogation the arrestee admitted having committed his crime out of the “unease” he felt towards Major General Ali Mamluk (Head of Syrian National Security Bureau), who asked him to plan the operation and transport the explosives personally. He also contended that he simply “went along” with double agent Kfouri, and that despite having embarked upon the terrorist operation, such an act was not “of his own thinking”.

Accordingly, with “The Unease of Michel Samaha: An Intervention In A Court Case”, we seek to question theoretically, not legally, the relationship between the crime and the discourse of its perpetrator which, in Samaha’s case, draws a straight line between the terrorist act and the so called unease. Does Samaha’s unease cancel his crime?

Through this and other questions we seek an appropriate resolution to the problem at hand, that of the crime of “unease”, and to connect it to the “going along with” and the “no thinking”, words that Samaha kept repeating throughout his interrogation.

For reservations: Call 70.910.339 (10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.) or write to: alexis@zoukak.org
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