Aoun Says Judiciary Has 'Final Say' on Law Readings

President Michel Aoun said on Wednesday that the judiciary has the last word over any misinterpretation of laws, noting as “surprising” how a row over officers seniority decree has taken a “negative turn.”

Aoun expressed “astonishment how the conflict over the decree promoting a number of officers of the 1994 Session has taken a negative turn.”

“We are displaying an honorable example to the Lebanese people confirming that our judicial institutions have become immune and interpret laws for everyone beginning with the head of authority,” said Aoun addressing visiting delegation of the Consular Corps in Baabda Palace.

He was referring to the ruling of the justice ministry a day earlier on the controversial officers seniority decree that triggered a row with Speaker Nabih Berri.

In its recommendation, the Committee of Legislation and Consultations noted that the disputed decree did not require the finance minister's signature, citing a 1992 Shura Council ruling that had stated that “the finance minister does not have the right to oversee the work of the other ministers.”

After the committee's recommendation, a new war of words erupted between the Change and Reform bloc (of the Free Patriotic Movement of President Michel Aoun) and AMAL Movement (of Speaker Nabih Berri).

The Aoun-Berri spat broke out after the president and the premier signed a decree granting one-year seniority to a number of officers. Berri and Finance Minister Ali Hassan Khalil have insisted that the decree should have also carried the finance minister's signature.

Aoun and his aides have argued that the decree did not require Khalil's signature because it did not entail any “financial burden,” a point Berri and officials close to him have argued against.

Ain el-Tineh sources have meanwhile warned that the decree would tip sectarian balance in favor of Christians in the army's highest echelons.

The officers in question were undergoing their first year of officer training at the Military Academy when Syrian forces ousted Aoun's military government from Baabda in 1990. They were suspended by the pro-Damascus authorities until 1993 before they resumed their officer training course as second-year cadets.