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The US journalist Nada Homsi, who was detained on Nov. 16, has been released, Diala Haidar, a human rights campaigner at Amnesty International, told to L’Orient Today on Wednesday afternoon. Homsi’s release came hours after two human rights NGOs released a joint statement slamming Homsi's “arbitrary” detention and calling for her to be freed immediately.

Homsi, an American journalist of Syrian origin, said that when officers came to her apartment without a warrant on Nov. 16, "I didn't understand why, because no complaint was filed against me." She suggested that she might have been targeted for her pro-Palestine public stances and for her work as a journalist.

Speaking to the Human Rights Watch, Homsi’s lawyer, Diala Chehade, said that General Security officials raided Homsi’s apartment on Nov. 16 without a legal warrant and discovered a small quantity of cannabis. According to Chehade, the police then contacted the public prosecutor, who issued an arrest warrant for Homsi and her partner. Her electronics and documents were also seized by the authorities. Although the public prosecutor ordered Homsi’s release on Nov. 25, General Security issued a deportation order against her and continued to hold her in detention.

“Not only did General Security officers raid Homsi’s apartment without producing a judicial warrant, but they also violated her rights in detention by denying her access to a lawyer,” said Aya Majzoub, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch.  

Haidar told L’Orient Today that although Homsi's release is “great news, we call on the General Security to investigate all due process violations Homsi faced since her arrest and hold those responsible to account.” The statement by Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which was released early Wednesday, called for General Security to “promptly, thoroughly, independently, transparently, and effectively investigate the due process violations she [Homsi] faced since her arrest, and bring to justice anyone suspected to be responsible.”