Naharnet - Arrest Warrant Issued for Mawlawi as Video of His Arrest is Released, May 14 2012

Military Investigative Judge Nabil Wehbi on Monday issued an arrest warrant for Salafist activist Shadi al-Mawlawi, whose arrest in Tripoli on Saturday by General Security agents had sparked three days of deadly violence in the northern city.

Alongside Mawlawi, the judge also interrogated Hamza Mahmoud Tarabay and Qatari national Abdul Aziz al-Atiya. The two were released on bail while Atiya was also banned from traveling.

Wehbi is scheduled to interrogate three other suspects on Tuesday.

Earlier on Monday, state commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr charged Mawlawi with belonging to an “armed terrorist group.”

The National News Agency said five other people faced a similar charge.

Meanwhile, various media outlets have aired the video of Mawlawi's arrest.

His arrest by the General Security Department on Saturday for allegedly contacting a terrorist organization sparked gunbattles between the rival Tripoli neighborhoods of mainly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh and Jabal Mohsen, whose residents are Alawites and backers of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The fighting with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades has left at least eight people dead.

His seizure drew widespread condemnation after the agency lured him to an office of Finance Minister Mohammed Safadi’s welfare association under the pretext that he would receive health care.

But the General Security remained mum on the case.

Media reports have said that Mawlawi, an Islamist and an avid supporter of the Syrian revolution against Assad, has lately visited Syria.

http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/40156