Judge Saqr files lawsuits against 5 Jabal Mohsen residents, one Syrian national

The State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Saqr Saqr filed lawsuits on Friday against a Syrian national arrested in the Bekaa region, on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization aiming at carrying out terrorist acts and transporting booby-trapped vehicles into Lebanon.

Judge Saqr filed the lawsuits in accordance with articles that stipulate a death penalty as a punishment for such crimes, and referred the case to the Military Investigative Judge Riad Abou Ghaida.

In this context, Judge Saqr also charged five persons form Tripoli’s Jabal Mohsen with being involved in the Tripoli clashes, committing felonies against citizens and the state’s institutions, opening fire and damaging properties and buildings. He also referred the cases to Judge Abou Ghaida.

Earlier this month, Military Investigative Judge Riad Abu Ghaida issued an arrest warrant in absentia against 12 persons, and charged over 76 persons, over their alleged involvement in clashes in the northern city of Tripoli, the latest round of which left at least 26 dead and 180 injured.

The port city of Tripoli has long been a stronghold of Sunni Islamists in northern Lebanon.

But the city has become increasingly volatile in recent months due to the civil war in neighboring Syria, where the Sunni majority is leading a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Disputes from neighboring Syria's civil war frequently inflame sectarian grievances in Tripoli.

These clashes pit gunmen from both the mostly Sunni Bab al-Tabbaneh district and the Jabal Mohsen district which mostly comprises residents of Syrian President Bashar Assad's Alawite sect, a Shiite Islam offshoot.