BEIRUT: Head of the Beirut Bar Association George Jreij Monday denounced a delegation of Syrian lawyers who assaulted their Lebanese counterparts one day before at the Arab Lawyers Union conference in Cairo.
“This is an unprecedented phenomenon, especially since the Arab Lawyers Union was established to be a model and not to move Arab states’ differences to this Union,” Jreij told Voice of Lebanon radio station.
He expressed concerns over the “acts of intimidation against one of the lawyers who was voicing his opinion.”
“Response is everyone’s right and difference of opinion is sacred,” Jreij said.
He said head of the Arab Lawyers Union has “decided to take measures to fire and punish those who have assaulted and beaten” the Lebanese lawyers.
The assault Sunday came following a speech by Fadi Saad, a lawyer from former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s Future Movement, in which he criticized some oppressive dictatorships in the Arab world, but he made one remark that infuriated a portion of the crowd.
“Let’s compare the Egyptian army and the Syrian army. The Egyptian army defended its people twice ... in 2011 and 2013, while the Syrian army is killing its people,” he said, sparking an instant melee.
Cellphone footage captured from inside the Cairo meeting showed a group of lawyers, jumping from their seats and rushing at the speaker, with several altercations breaking out among the attendees.
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