Jreissati Denies Referring Hammoud, Abu Ghida to Judicial Inspection

Justice Minister Salim Jreissati on Tuesday denied referring State Prosecutor Samir Hammoud and First Military Examining Magistrate Riad Abu Ghida to the Judicial Inspection Committee.

"I have rather called on the Judicial Inspection Committee to ask a number of top judges not to give statements to the media before obtaining authorization from the Justice Minister, in line with the applicable norms," Jreissati told reporters after the weekly meeting of the Change and Reform bloc.

MTV had earlier reported that Jreissati had referred Hammoud and Abu Ghida to the Judicial Inspection Committee for giving unauthorized statements to the media.

Abu Ghida has spoken to al-Jadeed television and Asharq al-Awsat newspaper about the highly controversial case of detained comedian Ziad Itani. Hammoud for his part has conducted an interview with An Nahar newspaper and a local TV station about the same case.