Lebanon’s Rahi Rejects ‘Police State’, Spiteful Practices
Beirut – Asharq Al-Awsat/Monday, 16 January, 2023
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.
Al-Rahi: Noon’s arrest showed that judiciary has become tool for vengeance
Naharnet/January 15/2015
Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Beshara Boutros al-Rahi, on Sunday, strongly condemned the arrest of prominent port blast case activist William Noon, saying his detention proved that the judiciary “has become a tool for vengeance, malice and hatred and that security agencies are carrying out police state practices.”
“Aren’t they ashamed of themselves after they requested the arrest of William Noon, the search of his house and his imprisonment, not caring for his tragedies and the tragedies of his family?” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon. Turning to the presidential file, the Patriarch called on lawmakers to “stop destroying the country and its institutions and impoverishing citizens” and instead to “elect a president according to the constitution.” The new president “must come to give, not to take,” he added. “It is shameful that Arab and foreign countries are holding meetings and consulting in order to help Lebanon and elect a president while parliament is preventing voting, hiding behind the heresy of securing a prior agreement on the president,” al-Rahi went on to say. “They are stabbing our democratic parliamentary system in the heart,” the patriarch decried.
Bishop Aoudi to the honorable officials and judges: Stop the immoral abuse of the families of the suffering victims and the unprofessional transgression of the law, and impose justice
LCCC/NNA/January 15/2023
In his today’s homely Bishop Aoudi said: While Christ the God hears the cries of people who descended to take their image, we find the officials of our country arrogant over their own kind, and appoint themselves as rulers above humans, who judge according to what suits them, deafening their ears to the cries of the hungry, the sighs of mothers, the crying of children and the groans of the sick. The sound of an explosion that shook the capital and the whole world did not reach their ears, and what shook their consciences, so they did not move a finger, but rather strived to obstruct the disclosure of the truth, and we still see them being exposed to the families of the victims, working to silence mouths, blur the truth and silence the voice of justice.
He continued: “What happened yesterday in terms of the arrest of a young man asking to know the truth about the bombing that killed his brother and his comrades, and the assault of the military forces on the protesters against his arrest, including a priest, is unacceptable and condemned. Is he aware of the anger of the young man who uttered words emanating from a wounded heart?” And he broke glass in the Palace of Justice, saying that a large part of the capital had been destroyed, and that hundreds of its people had their bodies torn to pieces, and thousands of wounded and disabled people were left behind in the sinful bombing? Their rush to pursue and arrest the perpetrators? Instead of punishing the perpetrators, here they are exercising their authority over the families of the victims and taking revenge on the abused. What a miserable authority that empowers the weak, even if he has a right, and fills the criminal, the perpetrator, and the corrupt, either in collusion with him or out of fear of him. It is the duty of the political, military and security leaders to defend the oppressed. In the face of the oppressor, and it is the duty of judges to rule in the name of the people, not against the people. Therefore, I appeal to the conscience of every official and every honest and honorable judge to stop this immoral abuse of the suffering families of the victims, and this unprofessional transgression of the law. Wa justice. As for those obstructing investigations and fugitives from justice, if they succeed in escaping from the justice of the earth, how will they escape from the justice of heaven?”
And he asked: “Who will hold accountable those who disrupt justice, those who transgress state borders, those who deprive citizens of electricity, and those who impose fines and burdens on a bankrupt state? Who will punish the corrupt, the oppressors, the thieves of people’s money, the bombers of the capital and the killers of its people? Who will restore the soul to the victims? If one of the victims of the disaster was the son of someone.” Did the rebels against the judiciary remain silent or act recklessly? He who does not care about his destroyed capital and the physical and psychological wounds of its people, will he care about the fate of the country and the people’s money? We need officials who do not distract themselves, but work to devise a plan based on a clear vision that rebuilds the state and rid it of The sins of this class that ruled it for decades and dominated its people, quarreled with each other, shared its bounties, and took over all its wealth.We need a head of the state and new blood to revive the body of this worn out country, and adopt new methods based on integrity and science, and adopt accountability, accountability and punishment in Anyone who violates the constitution or underestimates the state, its prestige and sovereignty, or dares to interfere in the work of the judiciary or extends a hand to public money, we need great figures who rule with justice, take great positions and produce great solutions.
He concluded, “We called today to imitate the blatant faith of the ten lepers together, because the cry of pain emanating from deep faith in a single Savior, the Lord Jesus, can bring salvation to all. Our call is to thank God for everything like the tenth leper, and not to forget to return to God, because salvation is with Him alone. Let us place our hearts above and let us give thanks to the Lord, because “from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever, Amen” (Romans 11:36).
https://www.facebook.com/maronite.patriarchate.bkerki/videos/550016943819844