Maalouf became the first Lebanese journalist to ever be hosted by an Israeli network, and her comments were widely condemned in the Arab world. Despite having previously interviewed world leaders, including former Lebanese president Amine Gemayel on her television program Lel-Rouwad Faqat, and receiving three consecutive awards as the \u201cBoldest Journalist\u201d by the Lebanese Press Syndicate in addition to recognition from across the Arab world, her interview with an Israeli media site led many to brand her a traitor.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen years, for sitting in a studio and answering a journalist\u2019s questions. I want people to sit with that for a moment, because once you do, the absurdity of it becomes the whole story,\u201d she commented, explaining how the conviction has deeply affected her family and those closest to her.<\/p>\n
![\"Journalist](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/725892.jpeg\"\/)
Journalist Maria Maalouf. (credit: Courtesy)A vocal critic of Hezbollah, an exile in danger<\/p>\n
\u201cA verdict like this doesn\u2019t stay confined to a courtroom; it follows you into every phone call home, every plan to visit relatives, every conversation about whether it\u2019s safe to attend a wedding or a funeral,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n
While there is currently no urgent need for her to return to her homeland, Maalouf said the sentence was designed to \u201csit there, indefinitely, as a reminder that the file is open and the door can close at any time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a difference between living abroad because you were forced to leave because of safety issues, and living abroad with a 15-year sentence on the books with your name on it. One is a decision. The other is a cage with very long walls,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
As a vocal critic of the Iran-backed terrorist group, Maalouf\u2019s life has long been in danger; she has received death threats, including threats from individuals closely tied with the former Assad regime in Syria.<\/p>\n
In 2006, she told the Post she received a call plainly telling her she was a \u201cdead woman,\u201d a call she attributes to Hezbollah. The call came after she recorded an episode of her show criticizing the group, and more calls would soon follow.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the most disturbing came not from Hezbollah directly, but from the Assad camp. One of the sons of the regime publicly threatened to hang me in Sahat al-Umawiyyin, Damascus\u2019s great central square, the Umayyad Square. To be threatened with a public execution, in public, by name, and to understand that no authority in either Syria or Lebanon would treat it as a crime \u2013 that tells you everything you need to know about the environment I was operating in,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe social media dimension has been relentless. My lawyer eventually compiled and filed a formal lawsuit with Lebanon\u2019s Information Department documenting over 500 threat messages sent to my accounts \u2013 calls and written messages from unknown numbers and accounts, saying things I won\u2019t repeat in full here, but the category was consistent: threats of rape, execution, disappearance.”<\/p>\n
“Not one of those cases was ever prosecuted. Five hundred documented threats, filed with the authorities, and nothing. Meanwhile, I\u2019m the one who ended up with a 15-year sentence.\u201d<\/p>\n
These threats got worse after she wrote a tweet questioning why Israel wouldn\u2019t just rid Lebanon of Nasrallah.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Israel really wants peace, then it should go ahead and prove it by signing an agreement with Hezbollah. To this day, we have yet to rid ourselves of Hassan Nasrallah, who had led us awry in his war against it,\u201d she wrote in the 2017 tweet. \u201cIf Israel considers Hassan Nasrallah an enemy, then why hasn\u2019t it carried out an airstrike to relieve us of this burden?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI said something blunt and, I\u2019ll admit, raw \u2013 that if Israel genuinely considered Nasrallah an enemy, it should act like it instead of letting him keep dragging our region into other people\u2019s wars,\u201d she explained. \u201cIt came from anger, not strategy. Anger at watching Hezbollah fight in Syria, in Yemen, everywhere except in defense of Lebanon itself, while ordinary Lebanese paid the price in isolation, sanctions, and eventually war on our own soil.<\/p>\n
That single statement got a group of lawyers to file an incitement case against me, and by 2018, there was an arrest warrant with my name on it \u2013 \u00a0for words, said in anger, about a man whose actual record includes the assassination of Lebanese officials and a foreign war record most Lebanese never voted for and never wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beirut First Investigative Judge, Ghassan Oueidat, issued an arrest warrant in absentia against Maalouf for the slander and defamation of Nasrallah, which notably came after Maalouf filed her own lawsuit against Nasrallah for kidnap, rape, and murder.<\/p>\n
In supporting legal documents, Maalouf also listed \u201cany person who appears to be an active, interfering, partner or instigator\u201d who helped Hezbollah in \u201cincitement and participation of murder, and committing acts of kidnapping, torture, rape, displacement, committing war crimes, crimes of genocide, and crimes against humanity in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, and Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maalouf was particularly suspicious of why the sentence, after years of legal battles, came now and hinted that it was part of a wider campaign against those who speak out abroad.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe interviews were in 2021. The sentence lands in 2026. Draw your own conclusions about timing, I have mine,\u201d she said. \u201cThis verdict didn\u2019t arrive in a vacuum. It came down within days of two other Lebanese citizens living abroad, Ahmad Yassine and Joumana Gebara, receiving the same sentence \u2013 15 years, in absentia, for the same broad category of \u2018collaboration with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yassine, a professor in Paris, was accused of \u201cinciting the Israeli army to bomb the historic Baalbek Citadel by disseminating information, claiming that the citadel housed Hezbollah weapons depots,\u201d while Gebara was said to have praised IDF Arabic spokesperson Avichay Adraee and thanked him for striking Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, in addition to calling for normalization.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not a coincidence \u2013 it\u2019s a pattern, and it\u2019s a pattern that happens to be emerging at the exact moment Hezbollah is under real pressure over its weapons for the first time in decades,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In March, Beirut banned military activities by Hezbollah after it opened fire on Israel to avenge the killing of Iran\u2019s supreme leader. The Shi\u2019ite group, established by Iran\u2019s IRGC in 1982, said its attack was to avenge \u201cthe pure blood\u201d of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei \u201cin defense of Lebanon.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maalouf said she was given no opportunity to defend herself against the charges of espionage, treason, and incitement after Military Court Investigative Judge Najat Abu Chacra issued her arrest warrant in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs for notification or a chance to defend myself \u2013 there wasn\u2019t one. No summons ever reached me, no court date I could have appeared for even if I\u2019d wanted to, no lawyer appointed who could meaningfully test the case,\u201d Maalouf complained. \u201cThat\u2019s how these in-absentia military proceedings against exiled critics work by design: they are built to produce a verdict, not to hear a defense. I found out the way most people did: through the news.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maalouf admitted that she expected some kind of legal response to her interview, having seen the response to a single tweet, but hadn\u2019t anticipated that both could \u201ceventually be folded into the same \u2019collaboration with the enemy\u2019 framework, years apart, as if the state had been keeping a running tally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maalouf admitted that she expected some kind of legal response to her interview, having seen the response to a single tweet, but hadn\u2019t anticipated that both could \u201ceventually be folded into the same \u2019collaboration with the enemy\u2019 framework, years apart, as if the state had been keeping a running tally.\u201d<\/p>\n
As of 2023, 80% of those detained in Lebanese prisons were awaiting trial, according to the Lebanese Interior Ministry. At the time, detention centers across Lebanon had a capacity of 4,760, but held 8,502 prisoners, including 1,094 who actually had been sentenced, Lebanon\u2019s Internal Security Forces reported.<\/p>\n
Despite seeking to resolve the burden by reducing sentencing, the courts have handed down long sentences to individuals based on words alone.<\/p>\n