Lebanon: controversy after the arrest of a Maronite archbishop returning from Israel
Worshipers attend the Christmas morning mass at the Maronite Church of Saint Anthony of Padua in Lebanon's capital Beirut on December 25, 2020 amid restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
AFP - ANWAR AMRO
Text by: RFI Follow
1 min
The summoning and detention of a Lebanese Maronite archbishop by a military tribunal in Lebanon, on his return from a trip to Israel, caused an outcry among the religious circles of this community and part of the political class.
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With our correspondent in Beirut,
Paul Khalifeh
The Maronite Archbishop of Haifa and Jerusalem, Moussa el-Hajj, was interrogated and detained for eight hours Monday by security services upon his return from Israel.
Judicial sources claim to have discovered with the prelate 450,000 dollars and more than 40,000 euros sent to their relatives in Lebanon by members or families of former auxiliary Tsahal militiamen, refugees in Israel since the year 2000.
Bishop Moussa al-Hajj is accused of having violated the Lebanese law of boycott of Israel and of "involvement in money laundering".
In a country where religious communities are more powerful than the state, such news caused a real outcry.
Patriarch Bechara Raï urgently called together the leaders of the Maronite Church and demanded that the case be “
closed immediately
”.
He also asked for "
the return of the confiscated money so that it can be distributed to its beneficiaries
", at a time when 80% of Lebanese live below the poverty line.
The leaders of the main Christian parties, whether hostile or allied to Hezbollah, denounced the lawsuits against the Maronite bishop, who refused to surrender on Wednesday to a summons from the military tribunal.
This affair comes as the question of the normalization of relations between Lebanon and Israel, technically at war since 1948, divides public opinion.
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