Georges Abou Jaoudeh, the police officer knocked down by a hit-and-run driver on Saturday and still in hospital, told L'Orient-Le Jour on Monday that he filed a complaint against Khalil Siblani, while stating that the latter is still in detention.

"There is no way Khalil Siblani will be released from prison while I am still in hospital!" exclaimed the police officer, who considered himself lucky to still be alive and not to have fallen on his head during the incident.

On Saturday evening, the Internal Security Forces (ISF) issued a statement confirming the arrest of the driver of the Mercedes who "tried to run over and kill an officer on duty."

The police said that the intelligence services made the arrest and that the suspect is a Lebanese, born in 2005 and originally from Naqoura. His photos were later released by the police, along with his first and last name.

Hoping to leave the hospital before the end-of-year holidays, Abou Jaoudeh returned to this "dark" episode.

"I spotted a white car without a license plate in the distance that was approaching at full speed. When I signaled it to stop and pull over, the vehicle slowed down, then I was carried away by the speed of the car that rushed towards me and ended up on its hood. The driver was driving at over 150 km/h! At that speed, I was unable to take shelter or escape this incident," he recalled.

The police officer also refuted the detainee's claims that his foot got stuck on the accelerator pedal.

"He braked suddenly, and that's how I ended up on the roof of the car and then on the ground. It could have cost me my life," he said. According to him, everything happened in a fraction of a second.

On Monday, the deputy government commissioner at the military court, Judge Hani Helmi al-Hajjar, concluded the investigations carried out under his supervision at the information division with Siblani. He said that he seized the vehicle that the reckless driver was driving and affirmed that the latter would be prosecuted before the military investigating judge after the file was submitted to the military prosecutor's office.

'No family connection with Hashem Safieddine'

A mukhtar from Naqoura contacted by L'Orient-Le Jour defended the reputation of the Siblani family: "They [the Civil Defense] called him a thug and a criminal, while the young man had reacted in a moment of panic. He is respectable and polite."

He denied the family ties between the mother of the accused, named Safieddine, and Hashem Safieddine, the presumed successor to Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated in October after being the target of a massive Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut. The latter was also the maternal cousin of Hassan Nasrallah, originally from Deir Qanoun al-Nahr (Sour).

According to the moukhtar, the detainee's father comes from a wealthy family and works in Africa, particularly in Zambia. In the photos of his arrest, Siblani is wearing a black sweatshirt on which the Lebanese brand Les Imparfaits is clearly visible, written in white. The clothing company denied, in a statement published on Monday, "any link, direct or indirect, with the incident."