mobanmarketBeirut: Lebanese security forces briefly arrested five youths, including three minors, for allegedly pulling down a sign for the president’s political party, sparking outrage Sunday on social media.
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Defence lawyers said the five were taken into custody on Saturday evening in the town of Hammana east of Beirut over claims they tore down a sign for President Michel Aoun’s Free Patriotic Movement.
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Security forces released them after midnight after taking a statement from them, the Committee of Lawyers for the Defence of Protesters said.
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The army said two of the children were 15 years old, while the third was 12.
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The news sparked indignation on social media, in the latest outcry in a country gripped by spontaneous anti-government protests since October 17.
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“Down with the regime that arrests children,” said one user.
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“When a 12-year-old child manages to shake the state’s throne, you know the state is corrupt,” another wrote.
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During the first month of demonstrations, security forces arrested 300 people including 12 minors who were released within the next 24 or 48 hours, according to the lawyers’ committee.
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But 11 people – including two minors – remain in detention accused of attacking a hotel in the southern city of Tyre in the first week of the uprising.
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Lebanon’s protests have brought together people of all ages from across the political spectrum, tired of what they describe as sectarian politics three decades after a civil war.
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In the latest show of unity on Sunday, a festive mood reigned as Lebanese came together in public spaces across the country on the second day of the weekend.
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Women prepared traditional salads to share north of the capital, while a group of men danced on the beach to its south, state television showed.
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The demonstrators managed to bring down the government less than two weeks into the protests, but it remains in a caretaker capacity and no new cabinet has been formed since.
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The Free Patriotic Movement party founded by Aoun is now led by his son-in-law, outgoing foreign minister Gibran Bassil, one of the most reviled figures in the protests.
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The Morning and Evening Brief