Retired Irish soldier asked to testify

A retired Irish soldier has been asked to testify at the deportation hearing of a Lebanese man accused of executing two Irish peacekeepers more than three decades ago.

John O’Mahony, from Cork, was contacted by the United States embassy in London and asked if he would be willing to tell his story via video link to the hearing, due to be held next Monday in Detroit.

Former Private O’Mahony survived after he, two of his colleagues, and others were kidnapped in Lebanon by Christian militia allied to Israel. Privates Derek Smallhorne and Tom Barrett were tortured and killed, allegedly by Mahmoud Bazzi, now 71 and living in Dearborn, Michigan.

Mr Bazzi was picked up last month and accused of entering the US on a false passport. This followed a probe by immigration authorities after Mr Bazzi had applied for US citizenship.

He faces deportation to Lebanon, where Mr O’Mahony and other former members of the Irish defence forces want him tried for the 1980 murder of the peacekeepers.

Mr O’Mahony, contacted by the Detroit Free Press, said he told the US Embassy official he would have no problem testifying at Mr Bazzi’s deportation hearing.

“He just wanted to know whether I would was still willing to testify,” said Mr O’Mahony. “I said that’s what this whole thing’s about. I said by all means.”

Also contacted and asked to give evidence was Steve Hindy, a correspondent in Lebanon for the Associated Press news agency who was abducted at the same time as the Irish soldiers.

New York city-based Mr Hindy has written how he saw Mr Bazzi drive away with Smallhorne and Barrett, whose bodies were found later that day.

In an interview prior to his July arrest, Mr Bazzi claimed innocence and said his public confession on Lebanese television in the aftermath of the murders was forced by those higher up in the militia command.