BEIRUT, Lebanon - Authorities Wednesday closed "for good" a leading Christian opposition television station for violating an elections law prohibiting propaganda, Lebanon's prosecutor-general said.
Adnan Addoum told The Associated Press "the closure will be for good." He refused to elaborate or say anything more.
Security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said policemen went into Murr Television's building in Beirut, the Lebanese capital, and informed its owner Gabriel Murr and employees that the station has been closed by a court's order.
The station, known as MTV, went off the air shortly after 5 pm (1400 GMT) and judicial officials said Murr's Mount Lebanon radio station was closed as well for the same reason.
Eyewitnesses said police surrounded MTV's building, keeping passers-by and reporters at a distance. Some Christian lawmakers, however, made their way through the police cordon and met with Murr.
Murr later told the AP "the decision was made in a court and we respect the law, but this is a clear political move."
Pleading that his station simply called for improving democratic practices during elections, he said the ruling "infringes on public freedoms ... This is a decision taken in advance to start a battle with the media. It began with MTV but we don't know where it will go."
Earlier in the day, the Publications Court, headed by judge Labib Zwein, ruled to close MTV, the judicial officials said, also on condition of anonymity.
Speaking to reporters outside the MTV building, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi said he respected the law but opposed to the way the court ruling was implemented.
MTV, which has been critical of the Lebanese and the Syrian governments, was charged last month with violating a law that prohibits broadcasting material deemed to be propaganda at the time of elections.
The channel was accused of supporting Murr when he won a hotly contested by-election in June against his niece Mirna Murr. Gabriel Murr is the brother — and political foe — of former Interior Minister Michel Murr and the uncle of current Interior Minister Elias Murr.
The station faced charges last month that it harmed Lebanon's relations with Syria, the country's bigger neighbor that wields considerable influence in Lebanon, where it stations thousands of troops.
Also last month, prosecutors began investigating the Christian opposition Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International, accusing it of inciting sectarian divisions in its coverage of an incident involving the shooting death of eight people by a civil servant. The civil servant was Muslim and seven of his victims, all of whom were his colleagues, were Christian.
Gabriel Murr and the head of news at LBC, Jean Joseph Feghali, said last month that the prosecutions of their channels were politically motivated.
Lebanon has eight television stations and several have close ties to the country's 18 religious sects.