Mohamed Mossallam has been lynched by the people of the Lebanese village Katramaya. Mossallam is an Egyptian citizen living in Lebanon, who has been accused of murdering an elderly couple and their two grandchildren, aged seven and nine. He was also suspected of raping a 15-year-old girl in the same village.
Egyptian blogger Zeinobia wrote about the incident, and the available videos and photographs of the lynching on the internet.
She said:
Lebanese angry mob have killed a suspect of murder in the streets of Ketermaya ; an act recorded by video and photos that found their way in to the internet. I read about the terrible murder itself before and I was shocked with its gruesome detail: Two grandparents with their two grandchildren have been murdered in their house.
Some bloggers believe that Mossallam deserved it, since he was a criminal, while others say he was just a suspect. Zeinobia continued to wonder if the people of Katramaya did this because of the lack of trust in their judicial system:
Many people believe that he deserved it for what he had done , but what if he were innocent !!?? Yes the DNA results came proving that the suspect was actually the murderer but what if the results proving his innocence and not his guilt !!? We got that infamous incident Egyptian in Kuwait who was proved to be innocent after confessing under torture that he killed a Pakistani girl who is already alive !!!??
There is a huge debate currently in Lebanon about what happened in Ketermaya , that law of the vigilance means there is no trust in the state nor in the law and this is why the people take their rights by their own hands.
Tamer Mowafy, on the other hand, tried to find excuses for the angry Lebanese villagers. He wrote:
المصرى القتيل متهم بإغتصاب طفلة فى الثالثة عشر من عمرها و قتل أربعة – طفلين و جديهما!! .. و على الرغم من أن القاعدة القانونية المستقرة تقول أن كل متهم بريئ حتى تثبت إدانته إلا أننا جميعا نعلم أن الجموع الغاضبة لا تقيم للقواعد القانونية وزنا خاصة فى بلدان لطالما ضرب فيها بالقانون عرض الحائط من قبل السلطات التى يتوقع منها حمايته و التقيد قبل غيرها به .. لا يمكننا لوم جمهور غاضب إذا ما إفتقد الثقة فى أن القانون سينصفه – و إن أنصفه سيتم تنفيذ ما يمليه فعليا – إذا ما إلتجأ إلى وسائل بديلة هى بالضرورة أكثر عدوانية و عنفا و غوغائية لتحقيق ما يرى أنه العدل
The murdered Egyptian was accused of raping a 13-year-old girl and murdering four other people – two children and their grandparents! And even though it's legally known that a suspect is always innocent until proven guilty, but we all know that angry mobs don't really care about law and rules, especially in countries where law is usually ignored by the state which is supposed to be the one responsible for setting rules and complying with them more than anyone else.
It's hard to blame a group angry people who do not have much trust in their judicial system if they decide to apply their own justice, even if it is going to be a violent and barbaric way of applying justice.
The current tension between the Egyptian regime and the Lebanese militia Hizbullah, dragged some people here and there to accuse such tension to be the reason behind the Ketermaya incident. Yet Tamer Mowafy doesn't think they are related:
ثم تبلغ الغرابة قمتها و تصبح الريبة يقينا بعدم الموضوعية إذا ما بدأ أحدهم الربط بين الحدث و بين توترات سياسية بين النظام المصرى و حزب الله اللبنانى و التى توجت مؤخرا بحكم مريب من محكمة طوارئ مصرية ضد أفراد إتهموا بتكوين خلية تابعة للحزب على الأراضى المصرية.
It's really strange and unreasonable when some people try to relate this incident to the tension between the Egyptian regime and Hizbullah, especially after the trial and the Egyptian emergency court's rule against a number of suspects who have been accused of forming terrorist cell related to the Lebanese party in Egypt.
He then wonders how a village, whose citizens are mainly Christians and Sunnis, could be driven by the tension between Egypt and the Shia party:
فلماذا نتوقع من قرية سنية و مسيحية فى قضاء الشوف و ليس فى الجنوب كما قال البعض أن يحمل أهلها الضغينة لمصر النظام و يمتد حقدها إلى مصر الشعب و الأفراد؟؟
Why do we expect people of Sunni/Christian village in Qadaa Chouf – and not in southern Lebanon – to have hard feelings toward the Egyptian regime, and the Egyptian citizens as well??
Sara – a Lebanese citizen – commented on Zeinobia's post, expressing her disagreement to the angry mob's villagers way of taking revenge:
I think that what's been done by both criminal and the people was gruesome. I am Lebanese national and it pissed me off to see this. The killer deserved to rot in jail or be hung, but definitely not by the people. I understand the anger of the victims family and fellow villagers but THIS is not acceptable. the law enforcement already captured him and was ready to get him into trial. Honestly I am speechless, I don't know what to say.. this was a total shock.
And finally Sosso commented on Nawara Negm's post [Ar] about the same incident, stating that this incident has nothing to do with Egypt or Lebanon. We have to see it from a different angle, and angle that only sees humans regardless of their nationalities. She said:
الهستيريا الجماعية بتكون عمياء الناس اب
للي سحلت الجثة مكانش فارق معاهم جنسيتو ولا حتى هو ايه بالضبط حالة سعار جماهيري فيمكن قلة قليلة كان عندها خلفية بس اللي حصل انها قطيع بشر و لا بيفكر و لا حاجة يعني آخر حاجة ممكن تجي على بالهم انو مصري ما لوش ظهر
Anger and hysteria blinded those who tortured and lynched the body. They didn't really care about his nationality or even who he was. They were just angry. Perhaps a few people there were aware of his nationality, but the others sure did not know his nationality or even care if he is Egyptian or anything else.
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