Picture of journalist Rami Naim. (Credit: Naim's facebook page)
The Lebanese Army on Saturday arrested journalist Rami Naim, who, during an interview broadcast Tuesday on the "Manchette el-Masa" show on the VDL radio station, claimed he was ready to fire at security forces.
During the interview, Naim, who writes for the online news platform elsiyasa.com, also criticized the security forces' double standards in dealing with people close to Hezbollah and others in the country. Speaking about the interview on the social media platform X, Naim notably commented on the killing of Lebanese Forces official Pascal Sleiman — a murder many LF members say Hezbollah is behind.
According to video footage of the interview's recording, which Naim shared on X on Friday, he said, "Let the security forces make a mistake in an area that I am in; we will shoot at the security forces and the Lebanese Army … either we get treated like them [Hezbollah] or we will disobey all of these security forces."
Before making these comments, Naim, a fierce Hezbollah critic, gave the example of wanted clan leader Nouh Zeaiter, who openly talks about selling drugs and whom Naim claims is protected by Hezbollah. He alleged that when wanting to run operations in Hezbollah-controlled areas, the Lebanese security forces and the army "ask for permission" from the party.
The Lebanese Army confirmed to L'Orient Today that it had arrested Naim, but offered no further details.
On Friday night, the journalist commented on X about his broadcast remarks, made "on the eve of Pascal Sleiman's death," appearing to distance himself from any perceived animosity toward the Lebanese Army.
"What I was saying was clear: I was asking the army and the security forces to apply the system, even in the face of thugs," he wrote, adding, "We are with the army and we have confidence only in it."
Sleiman, a leader of the Lebanese Forces in the Jbeil area, was killed earlier this week by a Syrian gang, according to initial investigations of the Lebanese Army, and his body was found on the Lebanese-Syrian border; however, many accuse Hezbollah of being behind his death.
Following Sleiman's murder, tensions between Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces spiked. The LF released a statement on Tuesday about Sleiman's killing in which it blamed Hezbollah’s “illegal presence,” which it says has “hampered the role of the state,” leaving room for “armed gangs and chaos."
In a speech on Monday, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah strongly criticized the Lebanese Forces and its allies for being so quick to point the finger at his movement.