Leader of right-wing Lebanese Christian party falls ill with Covid-19

The Lebanese Forces Party, which holds 15 seats in Lebanon's 128-member parliament, announced on Friday that its president, Samir Geagea, had tested positive for Covid-19 after suffering "mild symptoms".

He had attended an Easter celebration organised by the party at its headquarters in Maarab, northeast of Beirut, the statement said.

"A day after the celebration of Holy Week at the General Headquarters of the Lebanese Forces Party, the leader of the party, Samir Geagea, felt mild symptoms," the party's press office said on Friday.

"After they continued for three consecutive days, he took a PCR test with his wife, member of parliament Sethrida Geagea," the statement continued, adding that Sethrida tested negative.

Ghassan Hasbani, a former Lebanese deputy prime minister, who attended the celebration with Geagea, was also infected, the statement said.

Geagea has been a controversial figure in Lebanese politics, playing a major role in the country's 1975-90 civil war.

He was tried and convicted for ordering four political assassinations, including the assassination of Lebanon's Prime Minister Rashid Karami in 1987 and the unsuccessful attempted assassination of Defense Minister Michel Murr in 1991.

He was sentenced to four death sentences, each of which was commuted to life in prison.

Geagea was imprisoned in solitary confinement below the Lebanese ministry of defence building in Beirut for 11 years, before he was granted amnesty and released in 2005.

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