Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency says a soldier who shot and killed a protester in Beirut last week has been charged by a military prosecutor with murder.
The agency says that a colonel who was on the scene with the soldier at the time of the shooting was also charged Thursday.
On Nov. 12, Alaa Abu Fakhr was shot dead by the soldier, who was trying to open a road closed by protesters in southern Beirut, marking the first death since widespread protests against Lebanon’s ruling elite began Oct. 17.
The daughter of of Alaa Abu Fakher, who was killed by a Lebanese soldier in Tuesday night protests south of Beirut, mourns during her father's funeral, in Choueifat neighborhood, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. For nearly a month, the popular protests engulfing Lebanon have been startlingly peaceful. But the shooting death of Fakher, a 38-year-old father by a soldier, the first such fatality in the unrest, points to the dangerous, dark turn the country could be heading into.. (AP PhotoHussein Malla)
The soldier, who has been under detention since the day of the shooting, and the colonel were referred to a military investigative judge who will start questioning them on Monday, according to NNA.
Lara, the wife of Alaa Abou Fakher who was killed by a Lebanese soldier on Tuesday night protests in southern Beirut, mourns over her husband's body during his funeral procession, in Choueifat neighborhood, Lebanon, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2019. For nearly a month, the popular protests engulfing Lebanon have been startlingly peaceful. But the death of Fakher, a 38-year-old father, by a soldier, the first such fatality in the unrest, points to the dangerous, dark turn the country could be heading into. (AP PhotoHussein Malla)