Lebanon’s Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi slammed on Sunday the security agencies over their “police state” practices in wake of the arrest of William Noun, a key figure among the families of Beirut's 2020 port explosion victims.
Noun -- whose brother, a fireman, was killed in the devastating August 4, 2020 port blast -- was arrested Friday over remarks made during a television program.
Noun is among those who have been urging the continuation of a probe -- on hold for more than a year due to political pressure -- into the explosion, which killed more than 215 people, injured thousands and decimated vast areas of the capital.
His arrest had sparked demonstrations on Friday night, while activists gathered earlier Saturday outside the Beirut police station where he was being held.
He was released early on Saturday.
During his Sunday sermon, Rahi slammed the judiciary, saying it “has become a tool for dealing vengeance and spite.”
He said Noun’s arrest demonstrated that the security agencies were operating as if Lebanon were a police state.
“The chaos in the judiciary now allows any judge to detain a person without thinking about the repercussions and justice,” he remarked.
He added that those who ordered Noun’s arrest should be ashamed of themselves for detaining a youth who has been striving for justice for those killed in the 2020 blast.
“They raided his home and detained him in complete disregard for his tragedy and that of his family and all of the relatives of the port explosion,” continued Rahi.
“Don’t they care about how the people will react?” he wondered.
Moreover, Rahi addressed the ongoing vacuum in the presidency, warning of a plot to create vacuum in Maronite and Christian posts.
He called for the election of a president according to the constitution, saying the elected figure must uphold national interests.
He condemned the “bad practices of officials who have led the country to its current state of deep poverty, complete collapse of basic sectors and institutions and such deep corruption that is backed by influential people in power.”
The patriarch called on parliament and parliamentary blocs to “cease destroying the country and its institutions and to cease impoverishing the people.”
Rahi lamented that officials “failed to learn a lesson from the coronavirus pandemic as they have remained victims of the virus, their corruption, pride, prioritization of their interests, spite and bad intentions.”
“No one has acted to end the presidential vacuum, chaos in the judiciary and security instability and address the electricity crisis,” he noted.
“It is also unfortunate and shameful that Arab and western countries are holding meetings and consultations over how to help Lebanon, while parliament has remained closed under the farcical claim that an agreement must first be reached over a president before a vote can be held,” said Rahi.
“They are dealing a blow to the very heart of our democratic parliament,” he added.
He warned officials that the people’s patience has grown thin and that they may rise up at any moment.
No people on the planet had reached such a state of collapse without rising up and revolting, whether they are living in a democratic or dictatorial state, he continued.
Furthermore, he said the prolonged vacuum in the presidency will be followed by prolonged vacuum in constitutional, judicial, financial, military and diplomatic posts, warning of a plot to create vacuum in Maronite and Christian positions.
