Protesters block roads with burning tires in Halba, Akkar, during a protest for the release of detained activists. (Courtesy of Michel Hallak/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — Protesters blocked one of the main roads in the town of Halba, in northern Lebanon, in protest against the arrest of a number of activists from Akkar who were in Sodeco's Blom Bank branch Wednesday morning during a hold-up, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.
Here's what we know:
• The activists were with Sali Hafez who filmed herself demanding her own money "for [her] sister who has cancer and is dying in the hospital,” while holding up a gun, and taking customers and bank employees hostage. In an interview with a local media outlet after the event, Hafez said that the gun she used was a toy that belonged to her 5-year-old nephew.
• The protesters in Halba lit tires in the middle of the street, calling for the immediate release of the two detained suspects, threatening to escalate their movements and anger to include the whole region of Akkar.
• Sali Hafez's lawyer Rami Ollaik told L'Orient Today that the two activists remain in custody as of Thursday morning, adding that old charges against at least one of them — other than the Blom Bank hostage-taking — have resurfaced. Ollaik, who is not representing the two activists, declined to give out further information on the matter.
Additional reporting by Michel Hallak.