Protesters blocked roads in Akkar after a video of Syrian and Lebanese workers being whipped and violently assaulted by their employee surfaced. (Courtesy of Michel Hallak)
BEIRUT — A number of workers, most of which are Syrians in addition to two Lebanese, were violently beaten while half-dressed on Wednesday by their employer in Qartaba in the Jbeil district. The employer, who filmed himself committing the beatings, claimed that the workers, who work in his agricultural trade, stole a watch and sunglasses, L’Orient Today’s correspondent in the North reported.
Here’s what we know:
• According to L’Orient Today’s correspondent, the Syrian and Lebanese workers “assured him that none of them had committed the act [of stealing],” which prompted the employer “to call in a group of young men to help him strip the workers of their clothes, and severely beat them with sharp tools and electric wires,” while filming the action. The employer later published the video.
• The workers claim that the employer has been avoiding paying them their owed wages for working as cherry pickers in the employer’s fields.
• The pictures and videos of the beatings aroused anger in the Akkar governorate, where the two Lebanese workers hail from. Akkar residents called on the security forces to start a rapid investigation to uncover the circumstances of this act and to hold everyone who participated in the beatings accountable.
• A statement was issued Wednesday by the Fneideq municipality denouncing what happened to “the young people of Akkar … and considered this act a heinous crime that deserves the most severe punishment.”
• The municipality added that it “strongly condemns the assault, beating, humiliation and mistreatment of those Lebanese youth, after they were accused of theft, with the aim of evading payment of their dues.” However, no statement was made explicitly specifying the Syrian workers who had also been part of the violent assault.
• According to our correspondent, members of the families of the two Lebanese men, blocked the Abdeh-Halba highway with rocks, cars and motorcycles demanding that the security authorities arrest and hold the assaulters accountable.
• The Lebanese Internal Security Forces said in a statement on Wednesday, commenting on the case, that two days ago “someone pressed charges against his workers for stealing LL100 million from him.”
• The ISF added that it started an investigation after watching the videos which circulated on social media of workers being beaten and that it was “given the authority to arrest the employer and bring him in to listen to his testimony.”
• According to the protesters in Akkar, the employer was later released, prompting them to take to the streets and “demand that he is arrested again and punished for beating the workers.”