Members of Lebanon's Internal Security Forces. (Credit: Hassan Ammar/AFP)
BEIRUT — Internal Security Forces have arrested three people since Wednesday night accused of a sectarian verbal altercation with a police patrol overseeing a building demolition in Kfar Qahel, North Lebanon, the ISF said in a statement.
A video that circulated on social media Wednesday appeared to show the accused, who are reportedly the owners of the condemned building, shouting curse words at the police officers, including asking whether they were sent "from Bkirki," the seat of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate. Kfar Qahel is a majority-Muslim town.
In a second statement published later on Thursday, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) announced they had arrested three people since Wednesday evening. The three apprehended suspects belong to the same family: a father and his two children, aged 45 and 47.
Construction site
The two sons were arrested on Wednesday and their father on Thursday.
The ISF added that these people are known by the justice system and that "the construction site they are working on has been shut down several times" in the past.
On Tuesday, Jan. 10, police officers came to their construction site, "where there were about 20 men, who are not seen in the video."
"The owners of the property shouted insults and promised to bring armed people and deploy them to the scene if the police stayed there. They also insulted religious leaders."
"The officers withdrew in order to prevent the situation from escalating," the ISF statement continues. The police later returned to the scene to stop all work in progress and apprehended the three men.
Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi tweeted late Wednesday night that the men had been arrested "in order to preserve the state's prestige, and to prevent any attack on the spiritual references and the security forces," adding that the accused had "attacked ... the security forces and Bkirki with insulting words."
'Did Bkirki send you?'
In the video, an elderly man and another recording the video appear to yell at a security patrol to remove their car from the property facing demolition. "Bring a court order first," the man shown in the video says.
"Are you coming from Bkirki? Did Bkirki send you? Remove the car!" the man recording the video says.
One of the men can also be heard saying: "We can send you the 'resistance brigades'," in an apparent reference to Hezbollah's guerilla auxiliary, the Brigades for Resisting the Israeli Occupation.
Resistance Brigades deny involvement
For its part, the brigades issued a statement Wednesday evening denying involvement in the Wednesday incident, adding that the unit "appreciate[s] and respect[s] all religious references."
"We reject attempts to use the Lebanese Brigades as a vehicle for purposes that we have nothing to do with, neither from near nor from afar," the statement added.
Meanwhile, Tripoli MP Ashraf Rifi tweeted Thursday morning "what happened in Kfar Qahel is a blatant violation of laws, customs and morals, and is strongly condemned. We call for the perpetrators to be strongly held accountable and to reveal the parties they are hiding behind. As for the church, it is greater than the insults of some small people."
This is not the first time Lebanon's security apparatus has arrested citizens accused of religious or political defamation and contempt, considered an arrestable offense. In 2018, security forces interrogated activist Charbel Khoury after one of his Facebook posts raised public controversy for allegedly mocking a popular Maronite Christian saint.
Reporting contributed by Michel Hallak.
