Lebanon’s public prosecutor yesterday ordered the release of more than 30 people detained the previous evening, the National State News agency said, in the worst day of violence since protests erupted three months ago.
The public prosecutor said all 34 arrested are to be released, except those with other pending cases.
The clashes took place with the backdrop of a rapidly worsening financial crisis and an impasse over the formation of a new government.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Cabinet headed by then-Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri resigned in late October last year.
Protesters have called for more rallies yesterday.
Riot police fired volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets in Beirut on Saturday to disperse thousands of protesters who rallied outside the parliament and in downtown.
The protesters, who came from the country’s north, east and Beirut, lobbed flares, metal bars, stones and tree branches at security forces.
The pitched street battles lasted for nearly nine hours and were among the worst scene of rioting since protests broke out in October.
At least 220 people were injured in the clashes, according to the Red Cross.
More than 80 of those were treated in hospitals, including a protester who sustained an eye injury, as well as security force members.
The clashes also took place in the courtyard and steps of a mosque downtown.
The top Muslim Sunni Fatwa office called it “inappropriate” and said protesters had taken refuge inside the mosque and were taken care of.
Protesters smashed windows and the facade of the headquarters of the country’s Banking Association with metal bars.
Security forces set fire to a few tents set up by protesters nearby.
Lebanese Minister of the Interior Raya El Hassan on Saturday said that security forces were ordered to protect peaceful protests.
“But for the protests to turn into a blatant attack on the security forces and public and private properties, this is condemned and totally unacceptable,” she said on Twitter.
However, Human Rights Watch described the security force response as “brutal” and called for an urgent end to a “culture of impunity” for police abuse.
“There was no justification for the brutal use of force unleashed by Lebanon’s riot police against largely peaceful demonstrators in downtown Beirut,” Human Rights Watch deputy Middle East director Michael Page said. “Riot police showed a blatant disregard for their human rights obligations, instead launching tear gas canisters at protesters’ heads, firing rubber bullets in their eyes and attacking people at hospitals and a mosque.”
Security forces said they had opened an investigation after a video shared online showed police beating up people believed to be protesters as they were brought to a Beirut police station.
The protesters have rallied against the country’s political elite who have ruled Lebanon since the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. The protesters blame politicians for widespread corruption and mismanagement in a country that has accumulated one of the largest debt ratios in the world.
Panic and anger have gripped the public as the local currency, pegged to the US dollar for more than two decades, plummeted.
The Lebanese pound lost more than 60 percent of its value in the past few weeks on the black market.
The economy has seen no growth and foreign inflows dried up in the already heavily indebted country, which relies on imports for most of its basic goods.
Banks have imposed informal capital controls, limiting withdrawal of US dollars and foreign transfers.
The World Bank has issued a warning, saying that the poverty rate could rise from one-third to half of the population if the political crisis is not resolved soon.
Additional reporting by AFP
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