Comedian Nino Fenianos was brutally assaulted in Beirut after defending a woman that was being beaten. (Photo courtesy of Nino Fenianos)
BEIRUT — At dawn on Sunday June 4, as he left a nightclub in Beirut, Nino Fenianos, a Lebanese comedian and social media personality with over 70,000 followers on Instagram, had no idea that his evening out with friends was about to turn into a nightmare.
The young man, who had just left a nightclub in Beirut's Karantina district, was stunned to see a young woman being attacked by a man believed to be her partner. Fenianos and his friends decided to help the victim, who was being beaten up.
According to Fenianos, the attacker, who was visibly drunk and possibly under the influence of drugs, had been expelled from the nightclub following an earlier altercation with another customer.
"The man violently grabbed the woman by the hair, shoving her and throwing her against a car parked nearby," said Fenianos in a telephone interview with L'Orient-Le Jour. "Such aggressive behavior is hardly conceivable for a sober person," he continued.
The assailant re-offends
The young woman managed to escape the attacker, who was arguing with a man who had come to help her. Fenianos and his friends approached her in the meantime. Frightened and in tears, she explained that she had already contacted her mother. The group of friends decided to stay with the young woman until her mother arrived.
Just then, the attacker returns to the scene. He drags the young woman and forces her into his vehicle, before shouting "Why are you looking at me?" to Fenianos and his friends.
"I can't explain to you the degree of rage I saw in that man's eyes," the comedian said.
The assailant then chased one of Fenianos' friends. Fenianos ran to his aid. A shower of blows to the face followed. Fenianos claims that he was hit with an object, without being able to give any further details.
A video he shared depicts the moments that followed the savage attack. The footage shows Fenianos on the ground, bleeding, surrounded by several people. It then shows the assailant making a U-turn in his car, before threatening to shoot the group. The man's face is clearly identifiable in the shared video. Moments later, the attacker storms away from the scene.
Legal proceedings underway
The consequences of the attack were severe for Fenianos. He suffered multiple fractures to his face, and several of his teeth were broken. Having lost consciousness, the comedian is being hospitalized. He shared shocking photos of himself in the hospital, his face bloodied and swollen.
"The doctors found that I had three broken teeth, and my jaw and nose were fractured. My friends were still in shock and unable to speak. As for me, I was disoriented and couldn't remember all the details," he recounts.
Affirming that the police were absent from the scene of the attack on Sunday, he recounts that they came to his bedside the following day, once he had declared in hospital that he had been assaulted. The comedian has lodged a complaint against his attacker, who remains at large.
Contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour, Fenianos' lawyer, Elie Kazan, confirmed that legal proceedings are underway, but declined to comment on the ongoing investigation.
Despite a serious socio-economic crisis that has hit Lebanon since 2019, a police force lacking resources and manpower, and a widespread feeling of insecurity among the population, a security source told L'Orient in January that according to the latest figures, the country saw fewer robberies and murders in 2022 than in 2021.
In November 2022, caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi confirmed this and stated that the crime rate had not increased compared to 2021.