Arslan 'Insists' on Judicial Council in Meeting with Aoun

Lebanese Democratic Party leader MP Talal Arslan and State Minister for Refugee Affairs Saleh al-Gharib on Monday held talks in Baabda with President Michel Aoun.

The two left without making a statement but LBCI TV said Arslan expressed his “insistence more than ever” on referring the case of the deadly Qabrshmoun incident to the Judicial Council, stressing that “there will be no bargaining over the blood of the two victims.”

He had earlier warned in a tweet against “any attempts to downplay the Mt. Lebanon crime, regardless whether that happen with a good or a bad intention.”

“Any settlement should go through referring that crime to the Judicial Council, which is the only competent authority to address it, or else the path will remain open for a strife whose consequences will be unknown,” Arslan warned.

MTV meanwhile said that Aoun called for "continuing the investigation and reaching a result before deciding to which judicial authority the case should be referred."

"Arslan clung to his stance, stressing that the alternative to the Judicial Council is the Judicial Council itself," while reiterating to Aoun that the incident was "an assassination attempt against a minister," MTV added.

Two of Gharib's bodyguards were killed and a third was wounded as the minister's convoy came under gunfire during an armed clash with Progressive Socialist Party supporters in Qabrshmoun. A PSP supporter was also injured in the violence.

The two parties have traded blame over the incident, with Gharib and Arslan describing it as an ambush and the PSP accusing the minister's bodyguards of forcing their way and opening fire on protesters.