Justice, Interior Ministers Bicker over Telecom Data

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The cabinet session held at the Baabda Palace witnessed a heated debate between Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi and Interior Minister Marwan Charbel over the controversial telecom data dispute.

Qortbawi lashed out at Charbel during Wednesday’s session for criticizing three judges at the judicial committee, which is tasked with assessing the possibility of providing the security forces with the telecom data, accusing them of not carrying out their full responsibilities.

Charbel revealed that his ministry submitted three requests before the committee after the attempted assassination of Lebanese Force leader Samir Geagea in April in order to obtain the data and carry out the investigations.

However, Charbel said that the committee rejected all the requests submitted by the ministry demanding it to provide explanations.

The March 14 forces repeatedly accused Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui of disrupting the work of the investigation by refusing to hand over the telecom data to the security forces.

Sehnaoui argues that such a move would be considered as a privacy violation.

According to An Nahar newspaper published on Thursday, the two ministers agreed on holding a meeting with the three judges to clarify the matter.

Comments 2
Thumb geha 10 May 2012, 13:40

the data is still not provided, which confirms the criminal aspect of fpm.
most probably they staged this failed assassination attempt (as everything they are doing is a failed attampt), or it is their boss hizbushaitan which they are covering.
criminals and other criminals....

Default-user-icon Dima (Guest) 10 May 2012, 20:08

Lah ya geha, regardless of the political stances the ministry of interior is required to provide a better case to the judiciray committee. The law cannot be so loose, in nowhere in the world can you ask for the entire telecom data, the ISF just needs to do its job better, look for leads and targets suspects like any security agency in the world.
Plus, the basis of any democracy is the separation of powers, so the ministry of interior is not supposed to pressure the judiciary in any way.
I am not a supporter of any of the two blocks but too many lines have become blurred because of the political divisions..we need to be careful not to fall in black holes.