Tarras Son Briefly Held as Supporters Rally in Beirut, Sidon, Bekaa

A son of detained Sunni Muslim cleric Sheikh Bassam Tarras was briefly arrested on Friday as supporters rallied outside Dar al-Fatwa in Beirut, Sidon and Barelias to protest the move.

The Internal Security Forces Intelligence Branch released Omeir Tarras after Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Latif Daryan held a series of contacts with a number of officials, state-run National News Agency reported.

Daryan had earlier held a meeting with the Tarras family at Dar al-Fatwa, the headquarters of the country's highest Sunni Muslim authority, amid a road-blocking protest outside the building.

LBCI television said the son was released "pending further investigations."

NNA had reported that “a 12-member force from the Intelligence Branch stormed the house of Sheikh Bassam Tarras and arrested his son Dr. Omeir Tarras for interrogation.”

The cleric was re-arrested on Wednesday after a brief detention in connection with the August 31 Ksara bombing.

His new arrest is not linked to the bomb attack, al-Joumhouria newspaper has quoted State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud as saying.

“He was summoned by the ISF Intelligence Branch for interrogation at the request of Assistant State Commissioner to the Military Court Judge Hani Helmi al-Hajjar, who went to the branch's headquarters to oversee the investigations,” the daily said.

Hajjar “ordered the arrest of Tarras pending further investigations in light of new information that was unveiled by Hajjar's interrogation of Tarras last week and the judicial writs that he issued as a result,” al-Joumhouria added.

Tarras' involvement in the new case has not been confirmed until the moment, Hammoud said.

“He might be guilty or innocent,” the prosecutor noted.

On September 15, the General Directorate of General Security said Tarras was briefly held in connection with the August 31 bombing over a meeting he held in Turkey with the attack's mastermind.

The brief arrest of Tarras, a former mufti of the Rashaya area, had created an uproar in Lebanon's Sunni community, especially among the ranks of the influential Muslim Scholars Committee and some Islamic activists.

The Ksara bomb attack left an elderly woman dead and at least ten people wounded.

The explosive device that was placed at a busy roundabout was targeted against AMAL Movement convoys that were carrying supporters to a rally commemorating Imam Moussa al-Sadr in the southern city of Tyre, AMAL leader and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri said a day after the attack.

Other vehicles were hit by the blast shortly after AMAL buses passed by the roundabout, reports have said.