October 17, 2026
The Cassation Public Prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj, wrote judicial summons to the Army Command – Intelligence Directorate, Gendarmerie Command, and Judicial Police, to conduct the necessary investigations and identify the gunmen who participated in obstructing the implementation of the judicial mission at Semaan Gallery, in preparation for taking legal measures against them.
The background of the case goes back to a raid on a pharmaceutical warehouse inside the Zaghloul building, after Al-Hajj assigned the head of the Central Criminal Investigation Department to investigate the drug file, inspect the warehouses of the companies and relevant agents, seize the drugs included in the list of the Ministry of Health, and prevent their circulation, provided that the inspections are carried out in the presence of an observer from the Ministry.
A patrol from the Central Criminal Investigation Department went to the main headquarters of a company in Bir Hassan, where it was informed that its warehouse was located in Semaan Gallery. According to the information, the force found about 1,000 boxes of medicine out of 7,000 that were brought into Lebanon by an exceptional decision from the Minister of Health prohibiting their sale, before the warehouse was sealed with red wax.
When they began to seal the apartment, four armed men came and identified themselves as Hezbollah, and demanded that the patrol leave, considering that its entry had not been carried out according to the established coordination mechanism. As the patrol refused, the entrance to the building was closed and the force was trapped inside amidst an armed crowd.
The siege included directing insults at the patrol members, in addition to threats and scattered verbal clashes, before the officers took refuge in the apartment of one of the building’s residents. As the siege continued, army support was requested, which arrived in batches, before the besieged groups withdrew and the patrol left the place.
The interrogations come to complete the investigation into obstructing the judicial mission and determine the identities of its participants, in parallel with following up on the drug file and the quantity that was not found.
