Lebanon: the convocation of demonstrators revives the controversy over the role of the military tribunal

Protester in the streets of Beirut, August 8, 2020 (photo illustration).

REUTERS / Goran Tomasevic

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Defenders of freedoms and international NGOs denounce attacks on freedom of expression in this country in the grip of an economic and political crisis in a precedent.

Publicity

Read more

From our correspondent in Beirut

,

Three activists of the protest movement that erupted in Lebanon in October 2019 were to be summoned this Thursday, September 24, before the military court for facts dating back several months.

Among them is

, a renowned oriental dancer.

He was

during a demonstration outside the Central Bank in Beirut on January 13 to denounce the political class accused of corruption.

Other hearings are scheduled for the coming months.

These summons to this exceptional tribunal are perceived by defenders of liberties in Lebanon and by international NGOs as acts of intimidation.

But even within the power and the political class, voices were raised to denounce these practices.

The outgoing Minister of Justice pleaded, this Thursday, for the limitation of the competences of this court, created during the civil war to judge the crimes considered as an attack on the security of the State.

Marie-Claude Najem recalled in a comment posted on Twitter that the protection of the rights of individuals must be a priority, stressing that civilians must not be brought before the military court. 

Numerous attempts to limit the prerogatives of this court, undertaken in recent years by deputies or civil society associations, have failed.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• Lebanon

• Justice

• Human rights

On the same subject

Diplomacy: the Lebanese crisis comes to the UN