From Beirut to Tripoli a wave of protest against the approach of Justice towards VAW

Two days following the mitigated three-year imprisonment sentence against the killer of wife Manal Assi, the capital of the North, Tripoli strongly attacked the attitude of the father who dropped his personal rights against the three rapists of his underage girl, “as if nothing has happened.” In this respect, the Tripoli Bar Association President pledged to continue the legal battle in the case of the girl until the end, while supporting at the same time the grandfather’s request for the custody of his granddaughter. In the meantime, while the girl’s laywer, Mohammad Hafzah, maintained that dropping the personal right does not “negate the nature of the rape incident,” the defendants’ attorney requested the release of the three young men, and is awaiting the decision of the judge on his appeal. On the subject, the Lebanese Center for Human Rights filed a notice last week at the public prosecutor discriminatory denouncing ‘Kalima Online’ electronic portal for publishing confidential news related to the above case and disclosing the full name and address of the victim. Meanwhile, the wave of condemnations is mounting against the recent mitigated pronouncement by Beirut Criminal Court in the case of Manal Assi. To this effect, As Safir newspaper recalled that one of the key underlying foundations for the passing of the domestic violence law was to deny all “angry abusers” the right to justify violence against their spouses (and other female members of the family). Incriminating the deceased wife, Manal, with adultery has backslid Lebanese society ten years, to the time prior to annulment of the so-called ‘honor killing’ law. In the same vein, Kafa Enough Violence and Exploitation called for the widest participation in the sit-in that it plans to organise tomorrow Wednesday at the Justice Palace to protest the above mitigated verdict. )As Safir, Al AKhbar, The Daily Star, July 19, 2016)