March 14 Backs Army but Calls for Justice in Abdul Wahed Killing

The March 14 opposition coalition reiterated on Wednesday its call for justice in the killing of Sunni cleric Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed in Akkar, saying the Lebanese continue to support the army but insist on justice in the case.

“We don’t call for vengeance and don’t target anyone. We only say that we want justice,” March 14 general-secretariat coordinator Fares Soaid said in the Akkar town of al-Bireh after offering condolences at the head of an opposition delegation to the family and friends of Abdul Wahed.

“We stand by you to launch the Intifada of justice in Lebanon the same way we met in the squares of Beirut to launch the Independence Uprising to force the pullout of the Syrian army” from Lebanon in 2005, Soaid said.

The March 14 official was referring to mass protests that forced Syrian troops out of Lebanon in the aftermath of the assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.

“We are all with the army but we also want justice,” he stressed.

Abdul Wahed, an anti-Syrian Sunni cleric, was killed along with his companion, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Merheb, at the army’s al-Kweikhat checkpoint in Akkar on Sunday.

Their killing prompted road closures in the North and deadly gunbattles between al-Mustaqbal movement and Arab Movement party supporters in Beirut’s Tariq al-Jedideh neighborhood.

During the condolences, MP Khaled al-Daher, who is a member of the opposition al-Mustaqbal bloc, also called for justice in the killings.

“We want the army command and the government to deal firmly” with the case, he said.

Al-Daher also called for a “real trial to punish the culprits.”

The two Sheikhs were heading to a rally organized by the lawmaker when they were shot by the Lebanese troops.