The Lebanese judiciary released journalist Maryam Majdouline Al-Lahham, after she was summoned to the Criminal Investigation Department and arrested on the grounds of her refusal to remove the post she wrote on her social media accounts, threatening the President of the Supreme Sunni Sharia Court, Judge Muhammad Ahmad Assaf.
The Public Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Khoury, issued a decision to leave Lahham under investigation, after her arrest on the background of the publication, and referred the file papers to the Central Narcotics Control Office. Activists said that the referral of the papers to the Anti-Narcotics Office comes because a hashish cigarette was found in her house after it was searched.
Fellow journalist Maryam Majdouline Al-Lahham was released hours after she was detained and interrogated, after her house was raided and the post was deleted from her Facebook account by unauthorized agencies. What happened today is very dangerous and would threaten dozens of journalists in Lebanon. Repeating these actions means devoting a custom to the issue of approaching freedoms…
— Salman Andary (@salmanonline) September 6, 2023
Lahham appeared before the Criminal Investigation Department today at the charge of Judge Assaf. Activists and journalists said that Lahham was arrested after she refused to delete the post herself, while the Alternative Press Syndicate Gathering indicated in a statement that the Criminal Investigation Department, with a reference from the Public Prosecution Office, searched her house in the absence of her lawyer. They took over her computer, accessed her Facebook account, and deleted one of the posts related to Dar Al-Fatwa’s complaint, considering it a “blatant violation of privacy, a violation of the law, and a violation of the authority granted to the Public Prosecution.”
Mariam Majdouline Al-Lahham’s refusal to delete the post is a victory for everyone’s freedom. Therefore, everyone who wants to preserve the remaining injections of expression should press with her. pic.twitter.com/tgVEwhNzZi
— Mariam Seif (@MariamSeif) September 6, 2023
Following the decision to arrest her, field movements and media demands for her release became active. The Alternative Press Syndicate considered that “the investigation and the measures taken against him are invalid because they violate the rights guaranteed by the constitution and contradict the protection the law provides to journalists,” calling for follow-up “solidarity” with colleague Maryam Majdouline and “rejecting the repressive policies pursued by the Lebanese authorities.” The assembly stressed “the need for journalists to uphold their rights and not appear for investigation before the security services, in line with their rights enshrined in the law.”
The Alternative Press Syndicate condemns the detention of journalist Maryam Majdouline Al-Lahham on the background of a tweet and attempts to force her to delete it, which is an illegal procedure, in addition to not allowing her lawyer to stay with her during the investigation.
It calls for her immediate release and solidarity with her.@MajdolineLahham– The Alternative Press Syndicate (@NakabaBadila) September 6, 2023
In parallel, the head of the Lebanese Press Editors Syndicate, Joseph Al-Qusaifi, pointed out statementHe added, “The Editors’ Syndicate has always reminded the concerned authorities not to summon female colleagues and colleagues to appear before the judicial police and the Information Crimes Bureau. Therefore, the necessity of adhering to the provisions of the Publications Law, especially the provisions of Articles 28 and 29 thereof, which stipulate that the prosecution of journalists is only carried out before a court. Publications”. He stressed that “the journalist is not a criminal, and his rights are safeguarded in the laws in force, and freedom of expression and opinion are safeguarded in the constitution.”
He pointed out that “what happened with Maryam Majdouline Al-Lahham today could happen to any journalist and media person if the operative part of the law is not respected, especially the amendments that occurred to the Publications Law in 1994, which abolished the penalty of imprisonment and pre-trial detention against journalists and media professionals.” He also pointed out that “the treatment that Al-Lahham was subjected to was extremely cruel and unjustified,” calling on “fellow colleagues to be careful about the summons they receive, to ask their lawyers, and to review the syndicate before they take any step.”
He concluded: “The right to sue journalists and media workers is available to every individual or morally harmed by one or more of them, but accountability is before the Publications Court, as there are dozens of cases before this court that decides on them according to the Publications Law and issues judgments in which they are acquitted or fined. We repeat this statement.” Once again, in front of all those involved in public affairs, to ensure the safety of the relationship with the media.
2023-09-06 19:58:15
#release #Maryam #Majdouline #AlLahham..and #case #referred #Narcotics #Office
