Protests after 4 Anti-Trash Activists Held over Incident with Derbas' Car

Two sit-ins were held Wednesday to protest the arrest of four anti-trash demonstrators over the interception of the car of Social Affairs Minister Rashid Derbas during a Tuesday march.

In the morning, activists and friends of the four young men held a sit-in outside the Justice Palace while in the evening a rally was held outside the nearby Social Affairs Ministry. The protesters later marched to the Justice Ministry building.

The activists – Tareq Mallah, Bilal Allaw, F.B.Z. and Ihab Yazbek – were arrested by the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch after Derbas filed a lawsuit accusing Mallah and others of “insulting” him and attacking his car during a protest in Beirut's Spears Street.

Activists have argued that Mallah was singled out by Derbas because of an old controversy between the activist and the minister.

The young man has appeared on several TV stations, claiming that he was sexually abused as a kid by other minors when he was in the custody of the Dar al-Aytam al-Islamiya orphanage, and accusing Derbas of refusing to probe the allegations in his capacity as a social affairs minister.

Mallah's lawyer Nizar Saghiyeh has decried that he has not been allowed to communicate with the detained activist, who was arrested Tuesday afternoon.

“We are worried because Article 47 is being violated and the lawyer is not communicating with the detainee,” said Saghiyeh.

“Since the investigation has been finalized, the prosecutor is obliged to file a lawsuit or order his release. We refuse that he be kept in detention because that would be a veiled punishment,” the lawyer added.

Activists had staged a sit-in overnight Tuesday outside the Intelligence Branch's HQ in Ashrafieh. Another protest will be held Thursday evening outside the Social Affairs Ministry.

The activists and friends of the four young men have also called for participation in Thursday morning's demo outside the Grand Serail to “denounce the government's approach towards the waste management crisis.”

Mallah and his comrades belong to the “You Stink” anti-trash campaign, which on Tuesday blocked several roads in Beirut to protest the authorities' failure to find a permanent solution to the waste crisis.

Tuesday's protest by the civil society activists at Riad al-Solh square near the Grand Serail was not the first. The same demonstrators held a sit-in in the area over the weekend to protest the mountains of garbage that had piled up in Beirut and its suburbs.

Trash collection resumed on Monday evening after the waste management ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Tammam Salam managed to agree on a preliminary solution to the garbage crisis.

The solution involves the “immediate resumption” of waste collection in Beirut, a “balanced distribution” of Beirut and Mount Lebanon's garbage to new locations and financial “incentives” to municipalities.

The unprecedented trash crisis erupted on July 17 when the central Naameh landfill south of Beirut was closed following a campaign by residents and environmental activists.

Y.R.