There are speculations in Lebanon that the recent arrest campaigns and charges pressed against multiple activists are part of a political retaliation to silence opposition parties and critics of the government, President Michel Aoun or Hezbollah.
“There is a campaign launched by the Lebanese authorities as an attempt to terrorize activists and impose the rule of a police state,” Ayman Raad, a lawyer working with the Lawyers' Committee for the Defense of Protesters told Asharq Al-Awsat.
In the past weeks, several activists were detained and charged with collaborating with Israel and insulting religious symbols. They were also blamed for the security events that erupted in Beirut and Tripoli during protests two weeks ago.
Others were detained in the Beqaa for taking part in the Beirut protests, while daily arrests are taking place against those who voiced anti-government political views on social media.
While Lebanese activist Kinda el-Khatib was charged Monday with collaborating with Israel, state-run National News Agency (NNA) said Shiite cleric Ali al-Amin was accused of “meeting with Israeli officials in Bahrain, attacking Hezbollah and its martyrs, inciting strife between sects, sowing discord and arousing sedition, and violating the Sharia laws of the Jaafari sect."
However, NNA later updated its report saying that Amin’s case is exclusively linked to two charges: Stirring sectarian sentiments and inciting conflict between sects, and the offense of contempt of religious rituals.
The agency also said that Military Investigative Judge Najat Abu Shaqra interrogated Khatib on Wednesday over the military prosecution’s lawsuit issued against her on charges of dealing with Israel.
She later received an arrest warrant at the end of the two-hour session in the presence of her lawyer Jocelyne al-Rahi,
“The recent arrest campaign against activists is arbitrary and retaliatory and it particularly targets the Beqaa area in an attempt to hold its residents responsible for what happened in Beirut two weeks ago,” Raad noted.
He explained that 22 activists from the Beqaa are still detained while others were released.
“There are two activists who refused to turn themselves in, four detained activists are from Tripoli while more than 45 others were summoned from across Lebanon,” the lawyer said.
He said activists who oppose the authority were mainly targeted over their political views.
On Wednesday, several protesters staged a sit-in outside the Palace of Justice in Beirut demanding "the release of Khatib and the rest of arrestees.
NNA said protesters chanted slogans against censuring and suppressing freedom.
