It’s beautiful, isn’t it, to be so influential and connected that you can get the judiciary branch in Lebanon to limit everyone’s freedom of speech in order to make sure whatever’s left of one’s reputation remains unscathed.

If you’ve ever thought that one might be able to go through living an abundant life in this country without being a wasta-full creature, you’ve thought wrong: a good wasta can literally subdue the constitutional rights of every single Lebanese citizen if it’s strong enough. And this has happened when a judge in the Metn area issued a ruling whereby mentioning a certain doctor’s name or the case in which they’re involved can render you broke.

Welcome to the country where you can get fined over $30,000 for mentioning a name or a case because that person involved is mighty enough to bend any law to their will. It’s an understatement to call this country we live in the Republic of shame.

In our daily saga of civil rights violations, not only are our bodies prone to become victims of murder, but so can our minds and our intelligence by systems that haven’t yet adapted to the fact that, in 2017, the truth will be out no matter what they do or who they try to suppress.

Shame on the judge who decided that a person’s ego is more important than a victim. Shame on the system that allows such creatures to prosper, perpetuate and stomp over everyone and everything in their wake, as they keep on rising in power and breaking everyone who’s threatening them.

Perhaps our legal system doesn’t know that such measures are a little too late. We all know what took place. We all know the cover ups that were attempted and that are still being attempted. When will our judges and this broken system we’re in learn that we are not the stupid helpless creatures they make us out to be, and that our intelligence will surpass their attempts at suppressing our voices?

You can try and rationalize such a judiciary decision as trying to prevent media from coming up with conspiracy theories or whatever. The fact remains that if it hadn’t been for that media, no one would have known about the case in question in the first place, and the doctor in question would’ve gotten off the hook.

In lawless lands, it is that media that keeps everyone in check. Forcing them to be silent will only lead to further degradation of our rights, as any semblance of laws are thrown out of the window of the highest and most equipped bidder.

People with non-medical backgrounds may not understand the details surrounding this particular topic, but it’s still their right to be informed. It is not the right of any doctor to issue a gag order against anyone who bad-mouthes him. This is not North Korea, and that plastic surgeon is not Kim Jong Un.

Do they really think that censoring us plays in that plastic surgeon’s favor? That it shows them in a better light? That it factors into their innocence? The only thing it does is show everyone how guilty they are.

In this banana republic, the murderers of Yves Nawfal and Georges El Rif have not yet had their trials take place, and yet this doctor has managed to secure an order that shuts everyone up about who they are and what they’ve done.

In this land they call a country, Annalise Keating would be out of a job because the system does her job for her. But being able to name a plastic surgeon is an extremely rare and difficult event.