Marada slams decision for revoking citizenship from 24 Syriac Lebanese

The Marada Movement Zahle-Bekaa branch slammed on Wednesday a decree for revoking Lebanese citizenship from 24 Syriac families in Zahle, the National News Agency reported.

Dozens of people who belong to the Syriac Orthodox community in Zahle staged a protest on Sunday to protest such a decision in the presence of Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Boulos Safar, according to NNA.

Safar later said during a press conference: “Once again Lebanese citizens [face] unfair decisions and decrees issued by the Lebanese government in a non-transparent and unclear way and without taking into consideration [the citizens’] interests.”

On Saturday, the Syriac Union Party held a meeting and reviewed the decree which has stripped “25 Syriac families” off their Lebanese nationality “up until now.”

The party renounced in a statement “this decision which was not studied [well enough] by the Lebanese authorities.”

The party also called for revoking the Lebanese citizenship from those who obtained it illegally.

In a first step toward reversing a 1994 decree deemed largely illegal, President Michel Sleiman signed last month a decree revoking the Lebanese nationality of people who had claimed to be Lebanese but were not officially registered in government databases.

This decision faced criticism due its timing, especially when Lebanese political rivals are divided over a number of thorny issues.

-NOW Lebanon

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