Lebanon failed to contact famous Lebanese journalist Maria Maalouf before sentencing her to 15 years in absentia last week for comments made five years ago, the US-based Christian-Maronite writer told The Jerusalem Post late on Monday night. Maalouf was sentenced for speaking to Kan News in 2021, where she complained, “Hassan Nasrallah and Iran’s party in Lebanon have taken the state hostage and returned it to the stone age.