The National Bloc: We refuse the return of repression in the country of freedoms

Today, Lebanon, the country of “freedom and openness,” is witnessing an unprecedented return to oppression and assault on individuals through practices that remind us of the Baath regime and its ill-fated period of guardianship.

While the major Arab countries are moving towards openness and respect for individual freedoms, our religious authorities have begun to establish themselves as a watchdog over what is permissible and what is forbidden, in direct and rapid collusion with Public Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat, who has turned into a judicial tool in the hands of the system, after he had the upper hand in obstructing the Beirut port investigation.

While the authorities are unable – or rather refuse – to arrest the former Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, after two international arrest warrants were issued against him, the judiciary arrests comedian Nour Hajjar due to a comedy segment for two consecutive times, as part of a systematic campaign of repression and infringement on freedom of expression that Lebanon has witnessed recently, signed by the state agencies, or its militias.

This surreal scene increases our conviction of the necessity of passing a law for an independent judiciary, in order to protect both the judiciary and justice, so that we can become – in action, not in words – a land of freedom, openness, and modernity.