Houri Calls on Higher Defense Council to Address Threatened MPs
Mustaqbal bloc MP Ammar Houri urged the Higher Defense Council to tackle the case of MPs who had received death threats in October, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.
The council was scheduled to convene on Sunday, with the MP demanding that it tackle the case of the 15 officials who received the threats through mobile phone text messages.
The list includes 12 lawmakers and three Mustaqbal officials.
Houri revealed that Interior Minister Marwan Charbel had handed the list of names to Prime Minister Najib Miqati in November and requested that an emergency meeting of security leaderships be held to address the issue.
Miqati had delayed the meeting however because he was traveling to the Vatican at the time and the meeting was never held after his return to Lebanon.
Miqati's press office later issued a statement through Voice of Lebanon radio (93.3) denying that he had ever received such a list.
Houri later condemned in a statement Miqati's denial, recounting the details of Mustaqbal Movement delegation's meeting with Charbel on November 16 during which it presented him with the list of 15 threatened officials.
The minister then expressed his understanding of the dangers facing the officials and telephoned Miqati that same day to inform them of the meeting he held with the delegation, he added.
Charbel suggested that an emergency meeting of security agencies be held to tackle the case to which the premier replied that he is headed to the Vatican and that he will address the issue upon his return to Lebanon, continued the statement.
“Seeing as the prime minister's media office does not seem aware of such a development, we hope it has been informed of the assassination of Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan and the discovery of a mortar shell in Beirut's Tariq al-Jadideh neighborhood,” it added.
Later on Sunday, Charbel's press office denied that the minister had received any list from Houri containing the names of politicians facing the threat of assassination or that he had submitted any list to the premier in this regard.
“Protection falls under the jurisdiction of the security agencies and all that minister Charbel can do in this regard is to submit a request to the premier to reinforce the State Security department if possible in order to provide the needed protection together with the rest of the security agencies,” said the press office.
“The lists that minister Charbel has concerning the targeting of certain figures are the subject of intense follow-up and attention,” it added, noting that “certain measures have been taken to protect the figures facing the biggest threats and the measures will be continued in order to protect all the threatened figures.”
Hasan was killed in a massive car bomb in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district on October 19.
Earlier this week, a mortar shell was found dumped in a garbage dumpster in Tariq al-Jadideh with Houri revealing that he was scheduled to visit the area where it was discovered.
He said that the shell may have been part of an attempt on his life.
The Higher Defense Council convened on Sunday to tackle the turbulent security situation in the northern city of Tripoli.
In October, March 14 alliance MPs Houri, Ahmed Fatfat, Hadi Hbeish, Khaled al-Daher and Nuhad al-Mashnouq said that they were texted death threats from a Syrian telephone number before and after Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau head Wissam al-Hasan's assassination.
Hasan was killed in a car bomb in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district on October 19.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and opposition MP Butros Harb both escaped assassination attempts in April and July respectively.
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