Shooting Victims Buried in Lassa amid Heavy Gunfire, Killer Handed Over to ISF
Ghassan and Hadi Seifeddine, the victims of the Wata al-Joz incident, were laid to rest on Sunday in their hometown Lassa, in the presence of General Security chief Abbas Ibrahim, who represented President Michel Suleiman, a Hizbullah delegation and MPs Simon Abi Ramia, Abbas Hashem and Walid Khoury.
Mourners fired their guns heavily in the air during the funeral procession as Abi Ramia thanked the residents for their "wisdom" and stressed that "no one is above the law."
Later on Sunday, Anthony Khalil, who is accused of killing the two men, was handed over to the Intelligence Bureau of the Internal Security Forces under the supervision of Interior Minister Marwan Charbel.
For his part, Hizbullah official Sheikh Hussein Zoaiter stressed "the need that the perpetrator turn himself in to authorities," emphasizing that "the region will maintain its religious coexistence.”
Earlier, reports said that an agreement has been reached between security forces and the family of the shooter, under which he would turn himself in within hours.
The residents of Lassa vowed on Saturday to take “escalatory measures” should the assailant remain at large.
They noted that Lassa lies in an area near various tourist destinations, warning that they may block the roads to areas such as the Kfardebian and Faraya ski resorts should the state fail to apprehend the criminal.
“We call on officials who are keen on Lebanon and mutual coexistence to hand the criminal over to the judiciary,” they demanded.
The residents blocked the Hrajel-Mayrouba road in order to protest the failure to apprehend the criminal.
“We are speaking from a position of power not weakness,” they declared.
“We do not want to take justice into our own hands,” they warned
“We hope that this issue would not be transformed into strife,” they added.
Ghassan Seifeddine and his son Hadi were killed during a personal dispute, which erupted over a traffic accident, in the Wata al-Joz region on Thursday.
On Saturday, Lassa cleric Sheikh Mohammed Itawi announced that the two men will be buried on Sunday afternoon. The announcement came after Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah interfered and requested that the families withdraw their pledge of sentencing the accused to death before they lay the bodies of Ghassan and Hadi to rest.
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