“If you don’t have guards, shoot them from the window!” This is what MP Jamil El-Sayyed uttered during a press conference, encouraging politicians to shoot at protesters outside their homes.
After this statement, and at the many reactions from the public, El-Sayyed went back the next day with another tweet to confirm that he indeed meant what he said. His tweet translates as follows:
“In the army, I learned that a person without dignity does not defend a homeland.
In the state, I learned that whoever has no dignity becomes corrupt and does not build a state for the people,
In Roumieh prison, I learned that a person without dignity accepts to be a false witness!
My words yesterday were for every thug who comes under my house’s window to insult my dignity and my family.
My words were intended.
Not a slip of the tongue.”
آخر كلام:
— اللواء جميل السيّد (@jamil_el_sayyed) June 4, 2020
في الجيش تعلّمت أن من لا كرامة له لا يدافع عن وطن،
في الدولة تعلّمت أن من لا كرامة له يصبح فاسداً ولا يبني دولة للناس،
في سجن رومية تعلّمت أن من لا كرامة له يقبل أن يكون شاهد زور!
كلامي أمس كان لكل أزعر بيجي تحت شباك بيتي لإهانة كرامتي وعائلتي،
كلامي مقصود،
مش زلّة لسان
At that, a group of lawyers prompted to file a lawsuit against him for inciting to kill protesters, unarmed civilians who have been undertaking a civil revolution, and practicing their rights to protest.
The lawyers of Marsad Al-Qanouni (Legal Observatory), Jad Tohme, Wasef El-Harake, Hany El-Ahmadieh, and Ali Abbas took the tweet to be a confirmation of this incitement to kill and filed the lawsuit against El-Sayyed.
In a tweet exhibiting the lawsuit document, attorney Wasef Harake wrote:
“I hope that insults will not be an unforgivable crime and the incitement to kill and threatening a matter of perception.
Justice is in front of a big test or is she (Justice) really blind or she sees only with one eye. The lawyers of The Legal Observatory have presented a lawsuit against Jamil El-Sayyed for committing a proven crime through the incitement of killing the revolutionaries and forbid them to practice their civic rights.”
نأمل أن لا يكون الشتم جرم لا يغتفر والتحريض على القتل والتهديد مسألة فيها نظر
— واصف الحركة (@WasefHarake) June 4, 2020
العدالة أمام إمتحان كبير اما هي فعلاً عمياء وإما ترى ولكن بعين واحدة
محامو #المرصد_القانوني تقدموا بدعوى ضد #جميل_السيد لارتكابه جرمًا مشهودًا عبر التحريض على قتل الثوار ومنعهم من ممارسة حقوقهم المدنية pic.twitter.com/pjrd7yLI9Z
In context, the people in Lebanon are the ones enduring daily offenses, robbed as they are from their basic rights to live with dignity.
A wise man once said, “The dignity of a ruler is not in the wars he wages but in ensuring the dignity of his people.”