Lebanese judiciary persecutes former army chief and 7 generals

The Lebanese judiciary set next Thursday as the date for the interrogation of the former army commander, General Jean Kahwagi, and seven senior officers close to him, after the Beirut Prosecutor’s Office charged them with the crime of “illicit enrichment.”
The decision to go after Kahwagi and his comrades came as a surprise to Lebanese circles, considering it was the first time that an army commander and high-ranking officers had been prosecuted in corruption cases, and this accusation raised questions about their opportunity and circumstances, especially since several of these officers are affiliated with powerful forces in authority. And they were receiving political protection.
The appeals attorney general in Beirut, Judge Ziyad Abu Haidar, stated yesterday (Wednesday) that General Kahwaji and the director of his office (when he was an army commander), retired Brigadier General Muhammad Jaafar al-Husseini, General of retired division Abdul Rahman Shehitli, former intelligence director Kamil Daher and former intelligence director Kamil Daher Brigadier General Edmond Fadel, former Beirut Intelligence Director, retired Brigadier General George Khamis, and former Northern Intelligence Director, Retired Brigadier General Amer Al-Hassan and Retired Public Security Lieutenant Colonel Ahmed Al-Jamal.
The appeals prosecutor attributed to these officers the charge of “committing crimes of illicit enrichment and exploiting their official positions to reap wealth, enormous sums and real estate, through the exchange of influence, admitting cadets to the war school in exchange for enormous sums. of money and rendering services to the powerful in exchange for personal gain. ” And he sent the file with the defendants to the first investigating judge in Beirut, the interim judge Charbel Abu Samra, and requested to question them and make the decisions required by the investigation, and Judge Abu Samra is studying the file, in preparation to set a date for the interrogation of the accused officers and take the appropriate decision in this regard.
A judicial source explained to Al-Sharq al-Awsat that the prosecution’s complaint in Beirut against former military leaders “was based on the discriminatory referral of the public prosecutor’s office, which requested the public prosecution against him, based on information provided by politicians, reports published by visual and written media, and videos that spoke. “The defendants possessed enormous wealth that they were able to reap during their tenure in their official positions, and after the preliminary investigations carried out by the Attorney General’s Office, sufficient suspicions were provided to initiate the public demand and process them with legal material, in particular Article 14 of Law No. 198. On Illicit Enrichment “.
It is noteworthy that the prosecution was carried out without questioning the officials in the framework of the preliminary inquiries that the Public Ministry usually carries out before the Public Ministry, but the judicial source familiar with the content of this file revealed that “the law does not prohibit the initiation of the accusation without a preliminary investigation; Especially if you have enough data for it. ‘ He stated that, “on the eve of publishing the information accusing them of corruption and making money, the Prosecutor, Judge Ghassan Oweidat, asked the military court to carry out investigations and investigations to verify the authenticity of these reports mentioned.” The judicial source highlighted that “the available and documented information has shown that each of the defendants has bank accounts with very high figures, in addition to many real estate, homes and luxury cars, so that it does not affect the labor salary they were receiving. , nor with the financial compensation they received after their referral. Backing out “.
The decision to prosecute these people raised doubts in the judiciary. Especially since the alleged crime occurred while they were in office, but the judicial source pointed out that “the law limits the crime of (illicit enrichment) to the first investigating judge in Beirut, and only to the courts of the capital, Beirut.”