Smoking ban Supervisor employees in the Ministry of Economy and Trade made their first arrest against a restaurant that had not followed the rule of the smoking ban in public places. Sunset Restaurant in a city South of Lebanon did not follow the new legislation and allowed their clients to smoke their water pipe (hookah) inside the restaurant.
Mohamed Ismail, the owner of the restaurant criticised this arbitrary law that threatened to close down a large number of restaurants — pointing out that he would continue to allow his clients to smoke hookah inside.The two employees wrote a note in the arrest report which was then signed by Ismail. The note read: “I do not listen to the news and I have no idea about the smoking ban law.”
Commenting on the first report against one of the violators, Nicolas Nahaas, the Minister of Economy and Trade said to Arabstoday that the law was launched in order to be applied and if there are modifications needed, then there are other steps to take in order to do so. He added: “This law had been discussed between the government, the parliament and the civil society figures for more than eight years, so it’s not just possible to change or freeze it within a day or two.”
Nahaas stated that the supervisors would do their job and not step back. The security forces, especially the internal security will be beside the supervisors in case they need support to apply the decree.
“I advise the Lebanese people to restrict to this decree to avoid the health risks associated with negative smoking” Nahaas ended.