Rifi Hands Over ISF Leadership to Salem, Says Leaving Post with 'Clear Conscience'
Internal Security Forces chief Maj. Gen. Ashraf Rifi handed over on Saturday the ISF leadership to Brig. Gen. Roger Salem, remarking that he was leaving his post with a "clear conscience."
The handing over of the post “comes as part of the law,” Rifi said at the graduation ceremony of expert officers held at the ISF general-directorate in Ashrafiyeh.
“My conscience is clear,” Rifi said seven days after Prime Minister Najib Miqati resigned over the rejection of the Hizbullah-led March 8 majority alliance to extend his tenure.
Rifi will turn 59 – the ISF’s maximum working age – on April 1. Salem will serve as acting head of the ISF until a new director-general is appointed.
Al-Mustaqbal bloc has proposed a draft-law that allows both Rifi and Army chief Gen. Jean Qahwaji to stay in their posts until they reach respectively the age of 62 and 63.
Rifi cited several of the achievements made by the ISF after he took charge of the department in 2005.
“Only justice leads to a stable society,” he said, adding “we are proud of our achievements.”
Rifi hailed ISF Intelligence Bureau chief Wissam al-Hasan and Wissam Eid, a top communications analyst with the bureau, both killed in the series of assassinations and murder attempts that targeted politicians and security and media figures in the aftermath of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri's Feb. 2005 murder.
Rifi thanked all ISF officers and saluted the Lebanese army and the rest of the security agencies.
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