Collective Action
Protesters roadblock in Halba to demand the release of two activists detained in connection with a bank hostage situation
وطنية - عكار - عمد مجموعة من شبان الحراك الشعبي في خيمة اعتصام حلبا إلى قطع طريق عام حلبا بالإطارات المشتعلة لتلقيهم معلومات تفيد بتوقيف أحد أبناء البلدة من قبل أمن الدولة في الدكوانة.
Protesters blocked one of the main roads in the town of Halba, in northern Lebanon, in protest against the arrest of a number of activists from Akkar who were in Sodeco's Blom Bank branch Wednesday morning during a hold-up, according to L'Orient Today's correspondent.The activists were with Sali Hafez who filmed herself demanding her own money "for [her] sister who has cancer and is dying in the hospital,” while holding up a gun, and taking customers and bank employees hostage. The protesters in Halba lit tires in the middle of the street, calling for the immediate release of the two detained suspects, threatening to escalate their movements and anger to include the whole region of Akkar. Sali Hafez's lawyer Rami Ollaik told L'Orient Today that the two activists remain in custody as of Thursday morning, adding that old charges against at least one of them — other than the Blom Bank hostage-taking — have resurfaced. Ollaik, who is not representing the two activists, declined to give out further information on the matter.