79 People, Including 19 Soldiers, Charged Over “Black Sunday” Incidents
Lebanon”s military prosecutor Judge Jean Fahd charged 79 people, including 16 soldiers and three army officers, in connection with the bloody riots that left seven people killed in Beirut last month.
The charges included murder, violation of military instructions, possession of unlicensed arms and causing unrest, setting rubber tires and tossing hand grenades.
Fahd charged two officers and 11 soldiers with firing at demonstrators protesting power cuts as well as the manslaughter of six civilians and the wounding of others.
Fahd charged an unidentified assailant with the death of a seventh protester.
The military prosecutor also charged one officer and five soldiers with violating military orders.
Fifty-eight civilians were also charged with causing unrest and attacking soldiers.
Judicial sources said the charges carry a maximum sentence of five years with hard labor.
The suspects were arrested by the Lebanese army over violent riots that left seven people killed in Beirut”s southern suburbs on Jan. 27.
The riots broke out after youths protesting alleged long spells of power cuts in the Shiite district of Shiyah entered the nearby Christian area of Ein el-Rummaneh and began throwing stones and setting cars on fire.
The situation quickly escalated after a member of the Amal movement was shot in the back.
Youths turned out in several neighborhoods, setting tires ablaze and briefly shutting down the main road leading to the airport.
All of those who died in the riots were Shiites, including two from the leading opposition party Hizbullah and two from Amal.
The bloodshed raised fears of civil strife in a country already grappling with its worst political crisis since the end of the civil war and with a series of assassinations mainly targeting anti-Syrian figures.
Hizbullah, which is engaged in a power struggle with the ruling coalition, blamed the government for what is
known as “Black Sunday” incidents.