Aline Sara and Nadine Elali, 
 
Lebanese security forces patrol the area of Wadi Khaled on the border with Syria on May 15, 2011, the date three Syrian soldiers crossed into Lebanon. (AFP/Anwar Amro)
The three Syrian soldiers who crossed into Wadi Khaled from Syria on Sunday have been forced back to their homeland, head of the Lebanese Institute for Democracy and Human Rights Nabil Halabi confirmed to NOW Lebanon on Wednesday.

Little is known of the soldiers, why they came to Lebanon, if they were defectors or loyalists, and who sent them back. But myriad stories abound.
Before crossing the border, the soldiers had clashed with chabiha, militia men who support the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said Halabi. One soldier was shot dead, and his comrades had managed to transport his corpse into Lebanese territory, he added.

“The soldiers had received higher orders to shoot at Syrian citizens fleeing into Lebanon,” said a Syrian activist who is currently in Wadi Khaled and who had direct contact with the soldiers. But after refusing to follow the orders, they were attacked, added the activist, who spoke to NOW Lebanon on condition of anonymity. They left their arms there and defected to Lebanon, but now they are back in Syria, where “they will become victims of the system."
But BBC Arabic’s Nada Abdelsamad, who interviewed two of the soldiers this week, paints a different picture of the story.

According to her, the soldiers were brought into Lebanon by force. “There were four soldiers who were attacked, one was injured, one was killed, and the two others are alive,” she told NOW Lebanon.

The two soldiers Abdelsamad interviewed said they were attacked by a group of 20 people while on duty at the border village of Arida. “We were surprised, and there was shooting, and we weren’t sure where it was coming from,” said one. According to the soldier, after he and his comrades surrendered their weapons, their attackers pushed them toward the Lebanese border.
“I am not sure if the people who forced them across are Syrians from [the Syrian border village of] Tal Kalakh who were already in Wadi Khaled, or Lebanese from Wadi Khaled,” Abdelsamad told NOW Lebanon.

“I’m really surprised [at what people are saying],” she added, in reference to statements that the soldiers had deliberately fled to Lebanon. “They were brought to Lebanon against their will. This is a fact, I was there.”
But a sheikh from Wadi Khaled who did not want his name printed, argued otherwise. “They got caught in the crossfire, and one was injured. So his friends tried to rescue him and take him to the Lebanese border where there was an ambulance,” he said.
Now that the soldiers have been sent back, human rights activists are criticizing the Lebanese government and army for their handling of the situation.

According to Halabi, the Lebanese army’s intelligence bureau transferred the soldiers back to Syria without going through the proper judicial process. “Legally speaking, the army has no right to do so,” he stressed. According to the lawyer, such an act violates both international and domestic law.

“A person who has fled into the Lebanese territory has not committed a crime at the local level; he is a refugee, and as a refugee, is entitled to protection and intervention from the UNHCR,” Halabi said, referring to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Lebanon also ratified the Convention Against Torture, Article 3 of which condemns handing over a refugee at risk of being subject to torture, he added. “By handing them back, the soldiers will be facing death, not only torture,” said Halabi.
As for the Lebanese penal code, Halabi said that the soldiers were detained without a warrant by security forces, not judicial officers. Additionally, in this case, the military intelligence did not have the authority to send the soldiers back – only the Ministry of Justice did. 

The army denied having any information on the deportation. “What you hear is just talk,” said a Lebanese Armed Forces representative in a phone interview with NOW Lebanon. “We don’t have information about this story; this issue is an issue of [the Ministry of] Justice.”
Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar told NOW Lebanon that the soldiers had requested to be sent back to Syria, meaning the Lebanese army was not required to go through judicial procedures before sending them back.
 
“Obviously, if they want to go back, who is there to stop them said?” Nadim Houry, director of Human Rights Watch’s Beirut office. “But, in the absence of a clear process and clear communication, we have no independent guarantees on what these soldiers wanted or not.”
“The lack of transparency is unacceptable. The Lebanese army should come out with a clear statement about what process was put in place to make sure that when they were sent back to Syria, they would not be detained and possibly tortured,” he said.