Back in 1994, Youssef Shaaban was convicted for shooting a Jordanian diplomat in Beirut and got life sentence in prison.
In 2002, a court in Jordan found that others were responsible for the murder and convicted them! So logically speaking, Youssef Shaaban turned out to be innocent, however it was impossible to release him since the issued rulings could be overturned unless by a presidential pardon.
Three days ago, president Michael Sleiman pardoned Youssef Shaaban and he was granted freedom yesterday in Beirut.
That was in brief the story of Youssef Shaaban.
I have seen in the media how everyone was giving credits to the president for pardoning him, but I was thinking what if Youssef Shaabad was really the one behind killing the diplomat?
In a special episode of Kalam El-Nas with Marcel Ghanem last night, Shaaban himself admitted that he played a “role” in the Lebanese civil war in addition to being a member in Hamas. Remember that the reason behind the assassination of the Jordanian diplomat was because Jordan and Israel were in negtiations to sign a peace treaty, that’s a good motive for Hamas to commit the crime no?
In addition, those who are supposed to be the real murderers were executed in Jordan, and god knows how did the Jordanian police (maybe) made them admit they were responsible for the assassination. Now how can you assure that Youssef Shaaban is innocent? The Lebanese judicial council made a mistake by convicting Shaaban, so how can you assume the Jordanian rulings were flawless?
To me the crime is still a mistery. Think of it, the guy might really be the one behind the assassination.