The father of Omar Taiba, a 30-year-old protester who passed away after being shot during one of Tripoli’s recent protests, posted a heartbreaking video demanding that the shooter be held accountable so he won’t kill anyone else.
“My son was shot in his back,” Farouk Taiba said. “My son did not attack the ISF, he did not partake in any violent behavior. He was leaving when he got shot… He was leaving not advancing.”
“That soldier enrolled in the ISF to protect people, not to kill them,” the bereaved father said about the shooter, demanding justice for his son.
He calls on authorities to arrest him, a member of the ISF, “to serve as a lesson to other members of the security forces” and for the ISF to stop using live ammunition on people demonstrating for a dignified life.
He shared that he doesn’t know what his son was doing there but that everybody said that he was having coffee, that he wasn’t throwing stones at the police, or the like.
He also shared that his son was 40-50 meters away from the police who shot him, and had his back to the shooter as he was leaving.
“He shot him in the back. Why did he shot him? I want to ask the one who shot him: Why did you kill my son? Are you happy now? Is your conscience at peace? Don’t you have children, you? Don’t you have a mother?”
“Let this man who killed my son come see Omar’s mother. His mother whose eyes haven’t ceased crying for days and nights,” he said, his voice breaking in tears that he tried to control.
“All that I want is that that man is penalized as an example to others,” the grieving father said.
“My son was a polite young man, he was a handsome young man,” he added. “He (the shooter) took him from me. He’s gone. There is no more Omar. But there are many in Lebanon like Omar. I don’t want anyone to die the way Omar died.”
There has been a second death by police abuse of power in Tripoli after Omar, as announced by the mayor of Tripoli. Osama Ghemraoui succumbed to his injuries caused by the security forces during demonstrations.
According to the NNA, there have been over 200 people wounded in Tripoli as security forces have fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters.
Tripolitans continue with their protests not only for their rights but the rights of all people in Lebanon to live with dignity, as the officials continue to turn a deaf ear to the outcry of the struggling people and a blind eye to their unbearable living conditions.