The call to demonstrate issued by an Oct. 17 protest group. (Credit: @Daleelthawra)
BEIRUT — Dozens of demonstrators gathered in front of the Internal Security Forces headquarters in Beirut’s Achrafieh neighborhood on Tuesday morning to demand the release of several activists accused of having stormed an MP’s house on Sunday night.
Here’s what we know:
• The detained activists are accused of participating in the storming of Akkar MP Tarek Merhebi residence in the wake of the explosion of a fuel tanker in the Tleil village in Akkar, North Lebanon, in the early hours of Sunday morning. The explosion has left at least 33 dead and some 80 people injured.
• A video widely disseminated on social media shows activists entering and vandalizing Merhebi’s home. Reacting to the break-in, the MP’s lawyer, Sleiman Merhebi, filed a complaint against the young activists for the alleged theft of $13,000, several bank cards, a hard drive and “valuables.”
• The ISF summoned a further 11 people Tuesday, while three of those arrested on Sunday and Monday remain in detention, in connection to the storming of the MP’s house, a lawyer for the Lawyers’ Committee for the Defense of Protesters told L’Orient Today.
• At the scene Tuesday, one protester chanted, “We are not afraid,” warning that the protest movement would escalate if those summoned were kept in detention after questioning. “We want justice to be done. Who killed Joe Noun?” read a sign held by another protester.
• “We don't want any more reforms, we want to change the whole political class,” said an old man, as the crowd chanted anti-power slogans. Paul Najjar, whose daughter was also killed in the port explosion meanwhile said that “the families of the victims of the explosions at the Beirut port and the families of the victims of the explosion in Akkar now form one family.” He added, “They face the same tragedy and have the same concern: to punish those responsible for the death of their relatives.”
• Earlier Tuesday, demonstrators protesting the detentions also blocked the Jbeil highway at Halat, the state-run National News Agency reported.