Lebanese authorities on Thursday arrested a former commander of the so-called "South Lebanon Army," an armed militia dealing with the Israeli army in southern Lebanon during the 1980s and 1990s.

The return of Amer al-Fakhouri through Beirut airport sparked widespread anger on social networking sites, amid accusations that he was practicing torture in a prison in the town of Khiam during the occupation of Israel in the south of the country.

Dozens of Lebanese, including former detainees in tents, gathered on Thursday evening in front of the Palace of Justice, denouncing the entry of Amer al-Fakhouri easily from Lebanon from the United States, and demanded the implementation of his sentences.

In 1998, al-Fakhouri was sentenced in absentia to 15 years' imprisonment with hard labor on charges of employment for Israel. The media is likely to have returned to Lebanon after the possibility of implementing these sentences over time.

A judicial source told Agence France-Presse that "the government commissioner to the military court Peter Germanus ordered the arrest of Amer al-Fakhouri," noting that public security has been investigating him since Wednesday.

A security source said he was "arrested on charges of dealing with Israel" under his sentence.

Former detainees said during a sit-in Thursday that Fakhoury assumed leadership responsibility in the prison, where hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinians were imprisoned and tortured during the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, which lasted 22 years until 2000.

Abbas Qablan, who was arrested in Khiam between 1987 and 1988, said that "no one was arrested in Khiam unless he was subjected to physical and psychological torture, all kinds of torture, with whipping, sticking and water."

Others said Fakhoury "was the second person in detention." Qabalan explained that he "gave direct orders to torture detainees" and sometimes participated in them.

The uproar over the return of Fakhoury began after the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar published in its issue Thursday the news of his return a few days ago, noting that it turned out that all arrest warrants against him "withdrawn", and headline "Akhbar" close to the Lebanese Hezbollah, the news "the state honors butcher Khayyam."

Fakhouri left Lebanon in 1998, two years before the Israeli withdrawal.

Amnesty International has accused the South Lebanon Army (SLA), which Israel funded and armed in southern Lebanon, of systematic torture, particularly in Khiam.

The militia, which had about 2,500 members, was formed after a unit of the Lebanese army defected from the leadership in 1976 during the 1975-1990 civil war after it was besieged in the south, fighting Palestinian and leftist militias at the time.

Many members and family members of the group fled to Israel in 2000.

"My father and mother were arrested and my brother was martyred inside the camp in 1989 because of a poisonous gas bomb ordered by two military officials, including Amer al-Fakhouri," said Hilal al-Salman, who also spent time in tents.

Lebanon is at war with Israel, and its dealers face harsh penalties that could amount to life imprisonment.