Tense Funeral for Abdul Wahed, Merheb in al-Bireh, Daher Calls for Executing Killers
Slain clerics Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed and his companion Sheikh Mohammed al-Merheb were laid to rest on Monday in the Akkar town of al-Bireh, amid tensions and intense shooting into the air by gunmen who deployed heavily at the funeral’s site.
Throngs of people gathered in the town to attend the funeral in the afternoon.
"We want a fair trial, and we want the killers of Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahed to be executed," Mustaqbal bloc MP Khaled al-Daher said at the funeral.
“Whoever executed the cleric and his aide deserve such a punishment,” said Daher, who stressed that “the residents of Akkar are the backbone of the Lebanese army.”
He noted that “Sheikh Abdul Wahed paid the price for helping the Syrian people.”
Daher stressed that “Syria’s envoy to the U.N. Bashar al-Jaafari’s threat will not intimidate Akkar or Lebanon.”
Addressing President Michel Suleiman, Daher warned that “this government is threatening the Lebanese people’s security.”
He accused Prime Minister Najib Miqati’s government of “isolating and marginalizing the majority of the Lebanese people.”
State commissioner to the military court Judge Saqr Saqr has ordered the arrest of three Lebanese army officers and 19 soldiers who were manning a checkpoint in the Akkar town of al-Kweikhat where Sheikh Abdul Wahed was killed, al-Liwaa daily reported Monday.
Abdul Wahed and his aide Merheb were on their way to attend a rally organized by MP Daher in Halba.
The army said in a communiqué that it deeply regretted the incident and that it would be investigated.
The news of the killing by the army pushed several angry residents to the streets of Akkar villages as protestors cut off roads with burning tires in the northern province, and the road in Naameh and other roads in the Beirut areas of Verdun, Mazraa, Beshara al-Khoury and Qasqas.
The anti-Syria cleric’s death also caused armed clashes between supporters of al-Mustaqbal movement and Arab Movement party near the Beirut Arab University in Tariq al-Jedideh, leaving two dead.
Source: Naharnet, Agence France Presse
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