Quarrel at Manara Fishermen Port: Mashnouq Denies Being Beaten, Aridi Declines to Comment
As Mustaqbal bloc MPs Mohammed Qabbani, Ghazi Youssef, and Nuhad al-Mashnouq were inspecting the project under execution by the Public Works Ministry in Manara, fishermen from the neighborhood obstructed their way and shouted insults at them, the state-run National News Agency reported on Monday.
The verbal argument developed into a physical stampede against the MPs at the hands of the fishermen before police arrived at the scene and arrested the perpetrators, according to NNA.Furthermore, al-Jadeed TV network reported that Mashnouq had been beaten during the inspection tour and that three people were arrested.
However, Mashnouq denied later that he had been beaten at the hands of fishermen in Manara.
For his part, Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi declined to comment on the incident in favor of "respecting the occasion of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's assassination anniversary, the agreement between me and PM Saad Hariri, the souls of the ill-fated Ethiopian plane victims and their grieving families, and the credibility of the state, its image, its stance, and the exceptional work of its institutions in the face of this disaster."
However, Aridi said he will let Hariri treat the repercussions of Manara's incident.
