BEIRUT: Hamra's Mayflower Hotel is suing the British daily The Independent for charges made by journalist Robert Fisk that the Mayflower's guests are involved with the re-arming of Lebanese militias. The Mayflower's lawyers in England filed a lawsuit this week suing The Independent for libel and damages, said Mayflower owner Sherif Samaha.

In an October 19 article about the flood of weapons into Lebanon and "new and secret armies," the veteran Beirut journalist Fisk wrote that if anyone wanted confirmation of the presence of armed militias in Lebanon, one only had to "check the register" of the Mayflower.

Samaha categorically denied the allegations. "I'd like to give my guest register to anyone for the last six months," Samaha told The Daily Star on Friday.

After the Mayflower's British attorneys wrote a letter demanding an apology and a retraction, the daily removed the mention of the Mayflower from the story on its Web site. Fisk did not answer repeated calls from The Daily Star, and The Independent's legal department also did not respond to a request for comment.

"That's not enough," Samaha said. "It's too late. The damage is done."

Most of the Mayflower's clients come from Europe, and some dropped their plans to stay at the hotel after the article was published, Samaha said.

"We had a few cancellations of people who were first-timers in Beirut," Samaha added. "I received a lot of e-mail asking about that."

The hotel regularly hosts officials from the UN Relief and Works Agency, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia and the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, Samaha added. "We're on the recommended list, and they're the ones who wanted to make sure," he said.

Even though The Independent erased its mention of the Mayflower, Fisk's story was translated into French and reprinted in the Lebanese magazine L'ebdo. The Mayflower's local lawyers have undertaken legal action against the magazine as well, Samaha said.

"When they write it, they assume full responsibility," he said. "Whether it is Robert Fisk or not, that has nothing to do with their magazine. There's a clear law." The hotel's loss of business because of the allegations has been minimal, but Samaha continues to pursue legal action more because of the reputation of the hotel, which was founded in 1957.

"The most important is going to be the libel, not the damage," Samaha said. "I don't care about the money. It's my name. It's the Mayflower. I don't want anything to tarnish its image."

I realize we are much stronger than that article," he added. "People asked a lot of questions, but the hotel is 50 years old."

For quite a few of those years, Fisk has been a frequent patron of the hotel's bar, The Duke of Wellington, and he knew Samaha's father, who owned the Mayflower previously. With Fisk's familiarity with the Mayflower and its bar, the reporter should have spoken with Samaha about the charges, Samaha said.

"He was a friend of my father's," he said. "He used to be a regular. He's supposed to know. At least he could have come asked me. That's not professionalism, that's low journalism."

For many outside Lebanon, the 61-year-old Fisk is one of the pre-eminent sources on the country's 1975-90 Civil War. His 1990 book "Pity the Nation: Lebanon at War" has become one of the most read tomes on the conflict, along with The New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's "From Beirut to Jerusalem."

With The Independent's daily circulation of about 240,000 and reputation for serious journalism, Fisk's words still find a large audience. The topic of militias springing up and arming furiously in Lebanon has turned up often in foreign media recently, after the Internal Security Forces in early October arrested two supporters of the opposition Free Patriotic Movement and charged them with training a militia for the party, which is headed by retired General MP Michel Aoun. Fisk's article, however, was the only piece to involve the Mayflower in the controversy.

The Independent has yet to communicate with the Mayflower or acknowledge receipt of Samaha's letters, the hotel owner said. Libel laws in the UK are among the toughest on media in the West, with the defendant often required to prove it did not commit libel. Compensation awards are also unlimited. Samaha said he intends to push forward with the lawsuit.

"If they had just written an apology, I would have dropped the whole thing," he said. "Mistakes happen. I didn't even get a phone call, nothing. They don't care. They're avoiding me.

"They weren't expecting me to continue with this. But no - it's too late."