The central news reported that images and videos have surfaced showing a group of young men subjected to severe beatings and humiliating treatment. These materials are being shared alongside news attributing the assaults to a young man overseeing agricultural land in Majdel Akkoura. The footage reveals signs of torture on the bodies of the youths, who are seen pleading with their attackers. According to the circulating report, "the young men are being beaten, abused, and tortured by someone they were supposedly working for, picking cherries in the Majdel Akkoura area."
The employer accused the young men, who are of Lebanese and Syrian nationalities, of "stealing a watch and sunglasses." However, they assured him that "none of them committed this act," which prompted him to bring in a group of young men to beat the workers, stripping them of their clothes and subjecting them to brutal beatings with sharp tools and electric wires. Scenes emerged showing the young men with potato pieces stuffed in their mouths, an act that undermines human dignity.
These videos have sparked widespread outrage and condemnation, with calls for security forces to initiate swift investigations to uncover the circumstances of these horrifying criminal acts and hold accountable all those involved. Following the news's spread, numerous tweets and statements of condemnation surfaced.
MP Michel Moussa, the head of the Human Rights Committee, condemned "the abhorrent torture practices against a number of young men, shown in photos circulated by Lebanese yesterday," asserting that "such practices warrant absolute condemnation," and he demanded the arrest of those responsible for these acts that violate laws and human principles, degrading people's dignity. He urged "the security forces and judicial authorities to pursue these offenders and take swift action against them."
In a similar vein, Sheikh Ghassan El-Lakis, Mufti of Jbeil, strongly condemned "the vile attack suffered by a group of sons of Akkar, who faced beatings and humiliation at the hands of citizen Charbel Tarabieh with a group of his like-minded individuals, as documented in videos on social media in an area considered a haven of security, peace, and coexistence among sects, where they came to seek a livelihood believing they were part of one nation."
He deemed the assailant's claims to be false and purely slanderous, aimed at evading the payment of workers’ wages. He stated, "Unfortunately, I have received several complaints over the years regarding similar assaults to what happened yesterday."
He concluded, "We demand that security and judicial authorities take a hard stance against such despicable acts to prevent societal breakdown." Additionally, the village elders of Fneidq condemned the reports circulating on social media about the beating and assault on local youths and Syrian workers in the Jbeil area by the individual named Charbel Tarabieh.
They called for "the arrest of the criminal and his accomplices and the imposition of the harshest penalties against him."
