Lebanon’s Patriarch al-Rahi calls for action after archbishop’s arrest
Archbishop Moussa el-Hage was released thanks to the intervention of Lebanon’s highest authorities. The archbishop of Haifa and the Holy Land did not appear before the military court. The Maronite Church is demanding that Judge Fadi Akiki, who is close to Hezbollah, be brought before the Disciplinary Board of the Judiciary and dismissed from office.
Beirut (AsiaNews) – Moussa el-Hage, Maronite archbishop of Jerusalem and the Holy Land, which is based in Haifa (Israel), was questioned for eight hours, not 12.
Reacting to the prelate’s arrest, the Maronite Patriarch, Cardinal Bechara al-Rahi, held an extraordinary meeting of the Permanent Council at the end of the afternoon slamming the unprecedented attack on the Maronite Church.
Describing it as a "security, legal and political farce,” he left it to the public to figure out who might be behind this, but gave hints to suggest that it was Hezbollah.
Archbishop Moussa el-Hage was arrested on Monday and taken to the headquarters of The General Security in Ras Nakoura before he was allowed to continue his journey, on condition that he appear before a military tribunal.
According to Church sources, his release took place only after Lebanon’s highest judicial authorities intervened, since the primary goal of the examining military Judge Fadi Akiki, who ordered his arrest and the seizure of his passport and mobile phone, was to keep him overnight at the headquarters of the General Security.
The judge accuses the prelate of violating the law on the boycott of Israel. Archbishop el-Hage was delivering aid from Lebanese and Palestinians in Israel to their relatives in Lebanon, affected by the economic crisis, a well-established pastoral service.
Security forces seized large quantities of medicines, food and canned goods, worth about 0,000, the sources said.
According to several witnesses, the medicines brought by the archbishop were confiscated on the pretext that the boxes and prescriptions were in Hebrew. Donors had tried to erase the Hebrew script to avoid any dispute. Drugs for chronic diseases, cancer, diabetes, and kidney failure were taken and thrown away.
The list of donors includes the names of many members of the South Lebanon Army. According to sources close to the investigation, the transfer of funds between "the occupied territories and Lebanon is considered a crime, and the bishop had already been warned not to transfer funds or medicines that would be delivered to him by people sought by Lebanese justice and living in the occupied territories".
The South Lebanon Army was an auxiliary force allied with the Israeli army, whose members fled to Israel when Israel pulled out from Lebanon in May 2000.
The Maronite Church, which denounced government officials, especially in the Justice Ministry, for their inaction and silence towards the methods used by the Military Tribunal, is now demanding that Judge Fadi Akiki, who is close to Hezbollah, be brought before the Disciplinary Board of the Judiciary and dismissed.
For his part, Cardinal Bechara al-Rahi noted that Judge Akiki failed to uphold the "conventions and customs" that govern the relationship between the Church and the Lebanese State, which are usually marked by the deference due to men of religion by virtue of their status.
The statement did not fail to note that the Maronite Church "was at the origin of the creation of Greater Lebanon."
The Director General of General Security, General Abas Ibrahim, tweeted that the General Security "only executed a court order."
Archbishop Moussa el-Hage did not appear before the military court yesterday as expected.
In its statement, the Maronite Church demanded “the return of the money seized by the Military Tribunal", entrusted to the archbishop by "Lebanese and Palestinian benefactors" and intended to help many needy families “in all Lebanese communities", not only Maronites.
The Maronite Church's statement made it clear that the archbishop was not acting on his own in this pastoral service, but was "following the guidelines that are none other than those of the Maronite Church and the Vatican." Therefore, the Church will not try to justify its action in the eyes of the security services.
The statement also called on the authorities to protect all Lebanese, “including Lebanese forced to leave the country” for historical reasons, whose children are prevented from registering in the Lebanese civil registry, which poses inextricable problems of inheritance and succession.
Comparing the present times "to other times and past empires", the Church, without naming Hezbollah, tried to highlight the kind of inquisitorial society the Shia group intends to impose on Lebanon with the society open to human rights and freedoms that the Maronite Church has always promoted in Lebanon and in the East.
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26/07/2022 17:50
