Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi on Sunday strongly condemned the arrest of prominent port blast case activist William Noon, saying his detention proved that the judiciary “has become a tool for vengeance, malice and hatred and that security agencies are carry out police state practices.”

“Aren’t they ashamed of themselves after they requested the arrest of William Noon, the search of his house and his imprisonment, not caring for his tragedies and the tragedies of his family?” al-Rahi said in his Sunday Mass sermon.

Turning to the presidential file, the patriarch called on lawmakers to “stop destroying the country and its institutions and impoverishing citizens” and to instead “elect a president according to the constitution.”

The new president “must come to give, not to take,” he added.

“It is shameful that Arab and foreign countries are holding meetings and consulting in order to help Lebanon and elect a president while parliament is preventing voting, hiding behind the heresy of securing a prior agreement on the president,” al-Rahi went on to say.

“They are stabbing our democratic parliamentary system in the heart,” the patriarch decried. — Naharnet