[EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW] Lebanese journalist Hasan Illaik in hiding after criticizing Saudi blockade on Yemen

Prominent Lebanese journalist Hasan Illaik is currently in hiding after Lebanon’s Public Prosecutor at the Cassation Court, Judge Ahmad Rami al-Hajj, issued an order mandating his arrest. 

His crime? Criticizing the Saudi blockade on Yemen in a social media post.

Apparently, the post disturbs the relations between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia. Illaik wrote, “For more than 11 years, the Saudi regime has imposed a criminal blockade on the northern governorates of Yemen. The Yemenis have seemingly got fed up with it and decided to discipline the criminal who imposed the blockade, the arrogant and reckless Mohammad Bin Salman, and rub his nose in the dirt.”

After the arrest warrant was issued, Illaik condemned the decision of the public prosecutor as illegal and politically motivated on his YouTube channel Al-Mahatta. 

The Lebanese journalist accused Al-Hajj of issuing the arrest warrant out of personal bias, indicating that his judicial appointment was made at the behest of Saudi Arabia.

Hasan argued that Al-Hajj’s order lacks legal grounds, noting that he was summoned by the Internal Security Forces’ Intelligence Branch over a social media post when, as a journalist, he should appear exclusively before the Publications Court. 

At the political level, Illaik said that the action of the public prosecutor represents the policy of the new Lebanese leadership that was imposed on the country at the behest of the US, France, and Saudi Arabia. 

“Since [President] Joseph Aoun and [Prime Minister] Nawaf Salam were appointed by an external decision, the country has been moving day by day from one place to another in a coup-like manner by this authority. This authority wants to transfer Lebanon from a bank to another, from where it is to the Israeli bank. It wants to turn Lebanon into a colony. It wants to turn the authority in Lebanon into a security coordination authority,” Hasan emphasized.

“They want to turn the country into a police state,” he asserted, adding that this would be achieved only by cracking down on freedom of expression, suppressing opponents and changing Lebanon’s identity in terms of public freedoms. 

Arab states normalizing ties with Israel can never be democratic, says Illaik

In dialogue with Breakthrough News, Hasan declared that no Arab regime which chose to normalize ties with Israel can be democratic. 

He explains that these regimes know well that their people oppose normalization with Israel, and support whoever confronts it in the region and the world, so they cannot go for normalization while their people enjoy a high level of freedom. 

“As the Lebanese state is heading towards normalization and prostration before the genocidal Israeli regime, it needs to turn into another Saudi Arabia, another United Arab Emirates, another Jordan, another Egypt, or another Morocco with regard to freedom of expression,” Illaik affirmed. 

The crackdown campaign on activists and journalists has intensified in the Arab region during the US-Israeli multi-front war across West Asia, resulting in the arrest of over 1,000 people.

Read more: Detention of Kuwaiti-American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin sparks international outcry

“Thus, issuing an arrest warrant against me came within this context. The context of cracking down on voices that oppose the path followed by the current Lebanese authority,” he continued.

Illaik believes that by doing so, the current authority attempts not only to silence his voice, but also to intimidate other anti-normalization voices.

The guardianship of Riyadh and Washington over the Lebanese State

According to Hasan, the incident also showcased the guardianship, which both the Bin Salman and the Trump administrations have over the Lebanese State.

“These alongside some other regimes are the real rulers of Lebanon, guided by an Israeli stick and threatened by the stick of Al-Julani.” Illaik said, referring to Trump’s recent proposal for the intervention of the Al-Sharaa administration in Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah. 

He also pointed out that the Saudi regime wants to control the level of freedoms in Lebanon, to prevent any censure against the House of Saud, which is the ruling family of Saudi Arabia, and against Mohammad Bin Salman as the head of that regime.

“Allowing criticism of the Saudi regime in Lebanon may open the door to criticizing it anywhere else. Since this would never be accepted by the regime, the decision to arrest me was made,” he noted.

I will come out more determined to say what bothers you, warns Illaik 

In defiance of the arrest order, Illaik stated on his platform that being detained is a small price that he will pay to defend his cause, compared to the heavy prices that his relatives and friends had already paid with their martyrdom, and their houses that were destroyed by the Israeli forces. 

“I am convinced that sacrifice is a natural component of the commitment to this cause,” he said, confirming that no matter how long he will be detained, he will come out more determined to say what bothers the Lebanese state and its sponsors. 

It is worth noting that Illaik was also summoned for interrogation last January by the legal authorities in Lebanon, after criticizing a speech of the Lebanese president and his government’s inaction towards the Israeli violations of the ceasefire deal.