Abu Hamdan filed an immediate complaint after the union also intervened, and the Tayouneh police station worked to open an investigation into the incident.
A video of the incident spread among Arab media sites, in which the Lebanese lawyer appeared being beaten and dragged on the public street.
The Beirut Bar Association Council issued a statement after the incident, which said:
- Following the blatant assault and beating of our colleague Susie Bou Hamdan by two people who became known to everyone, before the Jaafari Sharia Court in Chiyah, on Thursday morning, and while the colleague Bou Hamdan was performing her lofty mission while wearing a lawyer’s robe, the head of the Bar Association took action. Beirut Fadi Masri immediately assigned the Commissioner of the Palace of Justice, Maya Zaghrini, to follow up on the matter with the competent judicial and security authorities.
- Accordingly, the Beirut Bar Association will take the personal prosecution case alongside Ms. Bou Hamdan, and the Appeals Public Advocate, Judge Rami Abdullah, has issued a subpoena against the assailants.
- The Beirut Bar Association deplores this shameful attack on the dignity and sanctity of the profession. It thanks everyone who contacted and expressed solidarity with it and its colleague Susie Bou Hamdan. It warns against violating sanctities and demands the competent judiciary to take the maximum penalties against the aggressors.
Apology to the offender
One of the lawyer's attackers came out with an apology later Thursday, which he posted in a video.
The perpetrator, Mahdi Al-Moussawi, said in the video: “I, Mahdi Al-Moussawi, offer my apologies to the Bar Association, to the head of the Bar Association, Fadi Masri, and to the lawyer Susie Bou Hamdan. Psychological and social pressures led to an abnormal state of emotion.”
