BEIRUT (The Daily Star)- Attorney General Charbel Abu Samra Wednesday issued a bench warrant against Al-Jazeera journalist Faisal Qassem after he failed to show up to two hearings in the lawsuit filed against him for criticizing the Lebanese Army, judicial sources told The Daily Star.
“Qassem failed to appear before the judge for the hearing twice, leading to the issue of the bench warrant,” the sources said.
“Under the warrant, Qassem will be brought to the hearing whenever he is reached,” the sources said, adding that the Doha-based journalist would be detained and taken to court if he comes to Lebanon.
Qassem, an anti-Syrian regime news host, was expected to deliver oral testimony over Twitter posts he made in September mocking the Lebanese Army.
Qassem posted on his Twitter account that the only achievements the Lebanese Army had made since its establishment were shooting video clips with Lebanese singers Wael Kfoury, Najwa Karam, Elissa and Haifa Wehbe, along with setting fire to Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon.
Outraged by the comments, a delegation of Lebanese lawyers filed a lawsuit against Qassem for violating Articles 295 and 157 of the Lebanese Penal Code.
The lawsuit alleges that Qassem's remarks amounted to a “provocation of Lebanese public opinion through indirect incitement against the Army," and “undermining the prestige of the state and weakening national sentiment.”
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