In words that fail to describe the nature of the conspiracy against the depositors and the rest of the Lebanese, and in the midst of the turmoil of war and the notification attempt yesterday, Sunday, October 6: Judge Halawi decides to dismiss the depositors’ fundamental lawsuit against Riad Salameh and his accomplices in the file of ‘Forry’ and ‘Optimum’ commissions!

United For Lebanon Against Corruption Alliance (United – Mouttahidoun):

In words that fail to describe the nature of the conspiracy against the depositors and the rest of the Lebanese, and in the midst of the turmoil of war and the notification attempt yesterday, Sunday, October 6:

Judge Halawi decides to dismiss the depositors’ fundamental lawsuit against Riad Salameh and his accomplices in the file of ‘Forry’ and ‘Optimum’ commissions!

Past Sunday afternoon, October 6, 2024, United Alliance lawyers received a call from the “Damascus Road” police station informing them of the need to notify them of a recent decision issued by the acting First Investigative Judge in Beirut, Bilal Halawi (who has been rumoured to have been targeted by an Israeli raid the previous day?!). He ruled to reject the lawsuit against former governor of the Lebanese Central Bank, Riad Salameh, in the case of embezzlement and laundering of depositors’ funds through the companies ‘Forry’ and ‘Optimum;’ this means dismissing the lawsuit duly submitted with documents and established facts by lawyer Rami Ollaik and his depositor plaintiffs filed in this regard on March 2, 2023.

The United Alliance was not willing to issue any statement regarding this ‘appalling and shameful’ decision, amidst a tremendous state of death and massive destruction on the path to assassinating an entire nation and its people. But what is happening has exceeded all expectations of the existence of a human sense or conscience, even at the minimum, on the part of those who control the country’s fate and its denizens.

What is happening reveals a dangerous state of ‘calloused’ conscience, in a way that strips its bearers of their “human” status, reminding us precisely of the nature of Nazis. This goes beyond a mere “charade by a corrupt judiciary that slaughtered justice by taking away the rights of depositors and other Lebanese, destroyed their country, humiliated their families, and demolished their homes, and all of this committed ‘In the name of the Lebanese People’!”

What is happening is not far from what we hear and see: Literally dozens of complaints, prosecutions, travel ban decisions, and invalid arrest and subpoena warrants against the founder of the United Alliance, lawyer Rami Ollaik. This has followed the complicity of the heads of Beirut Bar Association Council, Melhem Khalaf and Nader Gaspar, in a mission to unjustly and covertly pave the road for stopping Ollaik's methodical whistleblowing and fighting of corruption. The latest persecution has been practiced by the ‘Military Public Prosecution’ and the ‘Military Court’ against Ollaik a few days ago. It is not far from what journalist Maryam Majdoline Al-Laham has been exposed to a couple days ago – setting aside any politics – for simply expressing an opinion. And there are many more examples, of the chorus of the ‘deep corruption state’ and its judges themselves, mobilized by name and the tasks assigned to them, regrettably.

What is happening here is plain ‘terrorism.’ It is what turned Lebanon into a terror state, and a haven and an authority for terrorism. It destroyed all the capabilities of the country and its people, making them terrified, oppressed, subjugated and helpless to the point of death. The Israeli enemy's terrorism, despite its horror, is only a drop in the ocean of this ‘state terrorism,’ which strips its perpetrators of any sense of humanity!

It is not innocent that Lebanon is being turned into an ‘arms depot’ for a war in which it has no business in the first place – the true resistance to occupation is unknowing of all of this; the prevailing terrorism by force, injustice and abhorrent weapons overthrow the most basic foundations of any nation and people. Then this largely ‘orchestrated’ war came in – with words of truth and righteousness promoting falsehood – in the context of acquitting the biggest corrupt criminals from plundering the wealth and capabilities of the Lebanese generations, and usurping the depositors’ lifesavings, after efforts to subjugate everyone through terror.

It is no coincidence that Salameh’s ‘arrest’ overlapped with the escalation of the ongoing war and came from a judge who became a ‘target’ of an enemy’s airstrike. Neither that attempts to melt and write off people's deposits have recently intensified, nor that a very unjust state budget was passed amidst a large scale of war destruction; nor that depositors get appeased like beggars with scraps of their own money by the Central Bank... What usually happens is the opposite of this during any war, in any country in the world. Isn't everything that is happening part of the agreement between those holding power and authority, namely Hezbollah, and all the ‘gods’ of financial and banking corruption in the country? Yes, and a thousand yeses. Downfall and a thousand downfalls. Collaboration and a thousand collaborations. Treason and a thousand treasons. Bitter disappointment by this situation goes beyond any sorrow. Those in charge of the ‘Resistance’ have replaced in it the better with the lowest, thus corrupting an ‘icon’ and corrupting a ‘homeland.’

Some time ago, an old, well-versed Lebanese man of great national importance came to us and said, “There will be war, and one of its causes, other than the conflict in the region, will be the need to enforce the commitment of the corrupt authority led by Hezbollah to the members of this authority, in order to acquit them, after their embarrassment in the face of the continued legitimate demands of the depositors and the Lebanese!”

Whoever does not see the connection is blind. Whoever sees only other things is delusional. Whoever does not see any of this is astray.

There remains only one path to salvation; not in screaming and wailing and not in submission, that is for sure. We need to stand as one people – united, beginning with the ‘Shiites’ bests – and say ‘No;’ lest we be buried along with the homeland.