Interior Minister Marwan
Charbel said in remarks published on Tuesday that an investigation was launched
into the manner in which Lebanese citizen Shadi al-Mawlawi was arrested.
“The officer who conducted
the operation deserves to be commended for the operation, especially since the
detainee [Mawlawi] was handed over to the Lebanese judiciary,” Charbel told Al-Jumhuriya newspaper.
He added, however, that in
addition to commending the officer, he “must be blamed for the manner in which
the operation was conducted if he violated the law.”
“I think there were many
other ways to conduct the operation without going to a minister’s office,”
Charbel said after Mawlawi was detained in an office that belongs to Finance
Minister Mohammad Safadi.
He also said that work was
underway to restore calm in Tripoli, adding that security forces were preparing
to deploy additional troops to the city.
In another interview with Al-Liwaa newspaper, Charbel said he
preferred a “peaceful and political solution” to get Islamist protesters out of
the streets in Tripoli without getting the Lebanese army involved.
“What has been happening in
the country is unhealthy. The current political divisions in addition to the
regional situation led to these results,” the minister said in reference to the
Tripoli clashes that erupted on Saturday following Mawlawi’s arrest.
Mawlawi was arrested
Saturday in Tripoli by General Security. Afterward, 100 young men blocked the
northern and southern roads into Tripoli.
According to press reports,
Mawlawi had been “lured” by General Security to a social services center in
North Lebanon’s Tripoli, where he was detained.
Deadly clashes
first broke out on
Saturday between the Islamists and the army as young demonstrators,
sympathizers of the revolt in Syria, tried to approach the offices of the
pro-President Bashar al-Assad Syrian Social Nationalist Party. The ensuing sectarian clashes have left eight people dead, including five on Monday, and nearly 50 wounded, prompting many people to flee the two rival neighborhoods of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh.
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