Lebanonese Interior Minister Elias Murr lashed out at Amin Gemayel on Monday, after the former president claimed the ministry falsely accused him and his escort of assaulting two policemen near the Rabieh neighborhood in Beirut.
While maintaining his ministry had acted under the assumption that "bygones should be bygones," Murr said he was nonetheless prepared to expose a few skeletons, warning that he possessed "many files" which could be used against people such as Gemayel, said the Daily Star newspaper.
Speaking at a rally staged by several hundred policemen who came to the ministry to offer their support, Murr recalled a scandal that surrounded the former president during his term in the 1980s, in which he allegedly permitted the sale of fake Lebanese passports to Palestinians.
Although no formal investigation ever took place, Murr threatened to "open the file" and claimed the deal had gone through under Gemayel's "orders."
The traffic incident which allegedly sparked the whole affair took place on Friday evening.
A ministry statement issued over the weekend accused Gemayel of remaining in his car while three of his bodyguards assaulted two policemen near a detour on the main Antelias-Bikfaya road near Rabieh.
The officers were allegedly trying to prevent Gemayel's motorcade from ignoring a detour and proceeding against the flow of traffic, said the paper.
Gemayel, however, subsequently denied the allegations, responding on Sunday that he never encountered any public works along the route he used that day. He added that he was "surprised" at the allegations made against him and his bodyguards.
On Monday, Murr insisted he was determined to enforce the country's laws, and vowed to "legally pursue" anyone who "oversteps his boundaries, no matter the consequences."
Nonetheless, both Murr and Gemayel have insisted that the entire affair is not political.
"I want to assert that (Gemayel) is trying to give this issue a political angle, when he says that the incident was fabricated," Murr said.
"We want to build a country, a law, a future for our children," he added, explaining that this would mean getting "rid of the era of militias and torture, and closing the old files to build a new country."
Meanwhile, the angry officers denounced the alleged assaults of their Rabieh colleagues, both of whom were apparently hospitalized after the beatings, the paper added.
"We demand that the law be applied to everyone, no matter how highly-ranked they were, particularly since this kind of aggression is being repeated in various municipalities and villages," they said in a statement.
The officers also called for the creation of a "media week" which would introduce people to policemen's duties – Albawaba.com
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