Firefighters extinguish a UNIFIL vehicle set on fire by protesters on the road leading to Beirut airport on Feb. 14, 2025. (Credit: Ibrahim Amro/AFP)
Two weeks after the attack on a convoy of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), which injured two Nepalese peacekeepers in the southern suburbs of Beirut, interim government commissioner at the military tribunal, Fadi Akiki, filed charges against 20 individuals, according to information confirmed by a source familiar with the case to L'Orient-Le Jour. Their files were transferred to the First Military Investigating Judge, Fadi Sawan.
Among the 20 individuals involved, only four are detained, including two minors, a judicial source told L'Orient-Le Jour, noting that the identity of the others remains incomplete because some elements, such as their mothers' names, are still unknown.
The defendants are charged with "forming a criminal gang, attacking UNIFIL vehicles, attempted murder, acts of terrorism, and theft," according to Al-Nahar. The day after the attack, 25 people were detained by the Lebanese army intelligence services, the Interior Minister Ahmad Hajjar had indicated.
When the convoy was attacked, three UNIFIL members, including an officer, were injured and a suitcase containing cash was stolen while tensions erupted on the night of Feb. 14 in the streets of the southern suburbs of Beirut, amid anger from Hezbollah supporters after Lebanese authorities decided to ban planes from Tehran from landing in Beirut. This decision came after accusations were made by Israel, alleging that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps was sending funds to the party on civilian flights.
During the attack, one of the youths, a minor, notably threw a Molotov cocktail at one of the vehicles, which caught fire, according to information from an-Nahar, which specified that a suitcase belonging to the deputy commander-in-chief of the peacekeeping force, Nepalese General Chok Bahadur Dhakal, who was about to leave the country and containing "between 20 and $30,000," was stolen.
This attack sparked a wave of condemnation, both in Lebanon and abroad.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.