Rights groups call for release of US journalist in Lebanon

By BASSEM MROUE
Associated Press

BEIRUT (AP) — Two international human rights groups say Lebanese authorities should immediately release a freelance American journalist who was detained in Beirut last month and continues to be held despite the fact that a prosecutor ordered her release. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said Wednesday the journalist was arrested on Nov. 16, by members of Lebanon’s General Security Directorate, without a judicial order. The groups quoted Nada Homsi’s lawyer as saying that the security force found a small amount of cannabis at her apartment. They say General Security continued to detain the journalist under the pretext that she was working in the country without a proper work permit.