WARNING: The following videos contain graphic content and may be disturbing to some viewers.
On Wednesday, a number of Lebanese and Syrian men went to work as they normally do, but there was nothing normal about what happened to them on this day.
In a video circulating on social media, these men were seen ruthlessly whipped and beaten by their employer. Terrified and hurt, they begged him to stop. But he did not. Instead, he gathered other men to aid him in his acts.
He stabbed his workers with sharp objects and struck them with electric wires. He filmed them as they stood in front of him, half-naked, blood dripping from their fresh cuts and stripped of their last ounce of dignity.
In the video, the employer accuses his workers of stealing his watch and sunglasses, a charge they completely deny. But they couldn’t really speak, because he had stuffed their mouths with potatoes.
This incident happened in a village called Majdel al-Aqoura, and the beaten employees are cherry pickers.
The pictures and videos circulating on social media sparked outrage in the country, but more specifically in the Akkar governorate, where the Lebanese workers come from.
Akkar residents protested and blocked the Abdeh-Halba highway. They demanded that the employer and those who helped him be held accountable for their cruel and inhumane acts.
The Fneideq Municipality issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that they “considered this act a heinous crime that deserves the most severe punishment.”
The Lebanese Internal Security Forces (ISF) started an investigation after watching the videos on social media. They stated that they were “given the authority to arrest the employer and bring him in to listen to his testimony.”
But the protesters in Akkar claim that the employer was later released and demand that he be arrested again and punished for what he has done.
