Over the weekend, a video showing a man heavily beating a policeman of the Internal Security Forces (ISF) made the rounds on social media in Lebanon.
The assailant had stepped out of a car with tinted windows, parked in the middle of the street, before unloading with repeated heavy blows on the policeman’s head as some bystanders tried to stop the attack.
The video capturing the incident was widely shared on social media and sparked outrage at what many people described as the absence of the state’s authority.
“Where is the prestige of the state?” several users wrote, while others tweeted “where is the state?” as they condemned the attack.
The ISF later issued a statement saying there had been a fight between the policeman and the assailant in Tripoli, outside the former’s work shift, and that the fight was caused by “old personal disputes,” noting that work was underway to arrest the attacker.
On Monday, the ISF announced in a statement that the man, identified as “S.K.,” had been arrested in Sadd El-Baouchriyeh – in the Matn District, Mount Lebanon – by the Information Branch.
The statement said an investigation was ongoing under the supervision of the competent judicial authority.