BEIRUT: Mount Lebanon Prosecutor Claude Karam ordered Friday the demolition of an illegally constructed building by Hezbollah members in the Jbeil village of Lassa.
“Karam has ordered that the violation be taken down,” a judicial source told The Daily Star.
The Hezbollah members forcefully resumed construction on a controversial land said to belong to the Maronite Patriarchate in Lassa, security sources said Friday.
The sources told The Daily Star that Hezbollah’s local military commander, Yasser Hasan Miqdad, backed by around 50 Hezbollah members dressed in special uniforms, entered the disputed land late Thursday night and restarted work, nearly two years after a court ruling that banned construction.
Work continued until shortly before daybreak as Miqdad has threatened anyone trying to use force to stop him.
Security forces were only called in after work stopped around 4:30 a.m., the sources said, adding that the provocative move has created a tense atmosphere.
The long-running dispute dates back to 2011 over land ownership in Lassa.
The town has historically been a place of co-existence between Christians and the majority of its Shiite population since the early 19th century, and a local official blamed outdated maps for the recent flare-up.
Lassa’s mukhtar, Mahmoud Miqdad, has said properties in the village had changed hands frequently and without any problems since the 1800s.
In July 2011, a delegation from the Maronite Patriarchate arrived in Lassa to survey land it said belonged to the church, in line with a judicial order.
Residents who were not informed of the visit beforehand reacted angrily, and a brief physical confrontation forced the delegation to abandon its mission.
Politicians and church officials met in a bid to solve the impasse, but even though a solution has been reached, according to the Maronite patriarch, the tension has remained.
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