Justice Minister Hits Back after Fadlallah Lashes Out at Her
MP Hasan Fadlallah of Hizbullah’s Loyalty to Resistance bloc lashed out Tuesday at Justice Minister Marie-Claude Najem, accusing her of doing nothing after receiving 10 files documenting suspected corruption.
“Two months ago, the Justice Minister received 10 corruption files along with their documents and papers, which we had previously lodged with the Parliamentary Administration and Justice Committee,” said Fadlallah in a statement.
Noting that the files include details about around $31 billion in embezzled public funds, the lawmaker lamented that the minister “has not answered or taken any measure.”
“It seems that the minister’s priority is to sign urgent decisions with unjustified selectivity,” Fadlallah charged.
Najem hit back in a statement, saying the MP did not send files and documents but rather “a paper containing a list of some reports that are filed with the public prosecution.”
“It was followed by two additional lists yesterday and today, and the minister immediately sent a memo to the public prosecution to inquire about the fate of these reports,” the statement added.
“The MP’s suggestion that the minister bears the responsibility for not taking measures over these files is a legal mistake, seeing as the jurisdiction for investigations and announcing results belongs exclusively to the competent judicial authorities according to the applicable laws,” the statement said, noting that “the minister does not interfere in the details of the judiciary’s work in line with the principle of the separation of powers.”
But Fadlallah snapped back at Najem, saying that “instead of addressing her negligence, she is insisting on fallacies.”
“It seems that she has forgotten her main profession, although she was reminded several times by those who are more experienced than her in the profession and at the ministry of the need to read her jurisdiction very well,” the MP added.
“For information: reports are a legal measure used when the judiciary does not act automatically. The files that are in the minister’s hands had witnessed investigations and some had witnessed lawsuits, and it is the minister’s legal duty to answer MPs about the outcome of these investigations and the fate of the stolen billions,” Fadlallah emphasized.
Source: Naharnet
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