Lebanese pro-Syrian revolution Shadi Mawlawi said that he will not allow his detainment on the grounds of “unfounded” accusations of belonging to a terrorist organization.
“I am not ready to turn myself in,” Mawlawi told NOW contributor Karen Boulos in an exclusive interview on Friday.
The Tripoli resident said that security forces have no evidence backing their allegations, and that he will only accept his incarceration if they could prove him guilty.
“Let [the security forces] recite the indictment against me in front of public opinion, let them announce the crime I have committed and let them show evidence [against me],” Mawlawi said.
He added that he “does not trust the judiciary,” because security officers “want to fabricate arrest warrants against all the Sunnis.”
The controversial Lebanese man went on to underscore his support for the Syrian anti-regime revolution, denying however any direct ties with the rebels and the Al-Nusra Front in particular.
He later called on the judiciary to issue arrest warrants against Hezbollah, which is “publically fighting on Syrian territory.”
Earlier on Friday, Military Judge Saqr Saqr charged ten Lebanese people for being members of an armed organization and the Al-Nusra Front, among which was Shadi Mawlawi.
This was not the first time Mawlawi was linked to such organizations. In May 2012, he was arrested on charges of belonging to a terrorist group, sparking days of violence between Sunnis, mostly from the Bab al-Tabbaneh area in Tripoli, and Alawites from the Jabal Mohsen area, that left at least 10 people dead and 70 wounded.
Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Miqati also commented on this issue earlier in the day, saying that “when Mawlawi was released, it was [based on] a decision from the military justice, and when the military justice makes a decision, we commit to it.”
