Human rights groups condemn authorities for detaining Nour Hajjar

Lebanese authorities have arrested comedian Nour Hajjar over a joke he made five years ago, prompting widespread condemnation from human rights groups.

The comic was first arrested last week for a more contemporary joke he made on stage about Lebanese soldiers taking up second jobs as delivery drivers because their salaries were not enough.

He was detained for 11 hours and interrogated by military police – but as he left their headquarters internal security forces arrested him again over a 2018 joke posted online said to have 'insulted Islam'.

In that clip, he makes fun of his mother’s actions during a Muslim funeral, asking a sheikh to recite a favourite Quranic verse as if he were a DJ.

He was again detained for several hours and only released after dozens of protesters gathered outside the Justice Ministry. 

The Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Lebanon, whose members include Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, said his arrest represents a new escalation in Lebanon’s crackdown on public criticism.

Hajjar’s lawyer told the coalition that religious authorities had claimed the routine was ‘an insult to Islam, Muslims [that] endangers civil peace in the country’.

Ghida Frangieh, head of litigation at campaign group The Legal Agenda, said: ‘Comedy has an important social function, and our comedians should be granted the widest legal protection, especially when they are criticising public and religious authorities or practices, in a country ruled by legal impunity.’

 Aya Majzoub of Amnesty International added: ‘Nour Hajjar’s arrest is the latest example of how Lebanon’s authorities are instrumentalising the criminal insult and defamation laws to intimidate and harass their critics and to stifle freedom of expression in the country.

‘Parliament should urgently abolish all laws that criminalise insults and replace defamation articles with new civil provisions.’

Lebanon’s constitution guarantees freedom of expression ‘within the limits established by law,’ but the criminal code also imposes sentences of up to three years for insulting religious rituals. The Military Code of Justice punishes insulting the flag or army with up to three years in prison. 

The Coalition to Defend Freedom of Expression in Lebanon say that the country’s ‘insult and defamation provisions fail to meet international human rights standards and unduly restrict the right to freedom of expression’.

Published: 1 Sep 2023