Three arrested for criticizing the mufti online

BEIRUT — Three men were arrested Friday by the Lebanese State Security service in Khaldeh, south of Beirut, for criticizing Lebanon’s top Sunni religious authority, Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Derian, on social media networks, the state-run National News Agency reported.

Here’s what we know:

   • Authorities did not say who the men were or what they had said about the mufti.

   • During their arrest, the NNA said "various weapons" were found in their possession without valid permits. The three men were taken into custody.

   • Rights organizations, activists and citizens regularly denounce the decline of freedom of expression in Lebanon. Lebanese authorities continue to use the state’s defamation laws to curtail freedom of expressing political opinions by trying journalists and activists.

   • Lebanese comedian Shaden Fakih was summoned by the military court for trial on June 24, following a complaint by the Internal Security Forces about a prank call she made to its hotline during the COVID-19 lockdown, in which she asked them to deliver sanitary pads to her house. She recorded the call and later posted the video on her social media accounts. In another recent case, writer Lina Mounzer was summoned on June 22 to appear before the Intelligence Unit over what her attorney described as a minor security concern that was later cleared up.