Al-Rahi Hits Out at Othman over 'Fabrication of Files, Torture in Cellars'
Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Tuesday hit out at Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Imad Othman, drawing a swift response from the ISF director general.
“Have we become in a state of farms, sects and influential figures in which the judiciary runs according to desires?... Should we manipulate people if we occupy a judicial, security or administrative post? Is it acceptable for the strong to eat the weak? How can we accept what’s happening in the security sector?” al-Rahi asked during a meeting with a delegation from the press editors syndicate.
“An urgent appeal to Maj. Gen. Imad Othman: how can he accept the fabrication of files for individuals who belong to the same religion and sect? We are with the law but is the torture of people in the cellars of the ISF and the Intelligence Branch during interrogation acceptable? This has become unbearable because we have become distance from the concept of the state,” al-Rahi decried.
Othman responded in a statement, denying the allegations and calling on the patriarch to “meet in person the detainees who were allegedly tortured or dispatch anyone he wants, in order to unveil the truth and put things in the right perspective.”
Source: Naharnet
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