UFL to the Financial Attorney General in a Sit-in at the Palace of Justice: "How Do You Sleep at Night and All These Atrocities Happen in Your Department?

United for Lebanon (UFL) carried out a Sit-in in front of the Palace of Justice in Beirut, on Wednesday, September 23, 2020. Speeches were given by both UFL lawyers Rami Ollaik and Cynthia Hamawi and by the media coordinator Sally Korfaly, with empathies on the following:

 Korfaly: "We stand here today to apologize to the many citizens who told us, "You are exhausting yourselves", as we were absolutely determined to exhaust every hope or opportunity to pursue numerous lawsuits against corruption, but, unfortunately, we were tired and instead of our problem being just with the political system, it turns out to be in another place: The Judiciary; as if we are drowning in a mud of judicial corruption draining our efforts trying to penetrate it while also struggling to survive. Delays, slow investigations, twisting's, evading responsibility, tampering with files, concealing documents, and so on. All of this is happening inside the alleyways of the judiciary, unfortunately. This leaves us no way to go but to express a cry of injustice, humiliation, poverty and loss that has become the scream of every Lebanese citizen, whether resident or expatriate. Enough, we can no longer stay where we are, let it be any confrontation that has become inevitable"!

 Hamawi: "Our presence here today is nothing but a continuation of what we have started since 2016 in our battle against corruption, including corruption in the municipalities, one of the most common forms. And after the allegation against the president and a number of members of the municipality of "Marwaheen" in the south in 2017 on account of the crimes of embezzlement, waste, forgery, distortion, fake bills, we find ourselves today in UFL by shock for what we have witnessed in terms of manipulation and concealment of documents in the case file by the Financial Attorney General (Judge Ali Ibrahim), which disrupted the course of the case by the First Investigating Judge of the South Mercal Haddad. We are tired of submitting behavioral complaints before the Judicial Inspection Authority as a result of all these breaching of the basic duties and essential assets of any judge, starting with the social security file and passing through the waste and municipal corruption files and ending with the port blast file, as the behavioral complaints did not fix the blatant violations in these files that has put them to a halt, with the biggest loser: The Lebanese Citizen".

 Ollaik: "Before I talk about the recent scandals facts concerning senior judges, specifically the State's Financial Prosecutor, I would like to point out that the solution to our problem is not only in politics but in law and in building an independent judiciary capable of accountability and giving everyone their rights; and most importantly is also to reconsider the moral system that governs our national partnership, as corruption has become an epidemic that has not spared neither the young nor the old.

In the near history, Speaker of the House said that "the judiciary is for the weak". But we were not aware of the meaning of this until after we submitted the bulk of our corruption lawsuits before the Financial Attorney General who is affiliated with the House Speaker. We have made every effort, with confidence and enthusiasm, to arrive at even one serious decision to return the embezzled money or high-rank perpetrator behind bars. However, this did not happen. In fact, we were shocked by the methods used by the Financial Attorney General to hide the lawsuit documents and manipulate some of them, not to mention the endless follow-up efforts by UFL over the years that ended in vein, or with "a chat with the defendant over a cup of coffee"!

This covered the lawsuit files of social security, waste management, corruption of municipalities, banks, stock exchange and others, the last of being the corruption case in the municipality of Marwaheen, in which we were tired and tired of the appeals before the First Investigative Judge of the South, due to the "missing documents" from the file, in the context of manipulation, as referred too earlier. How can you, as a Financial Attorney General, sleep at night and all this happens in your department? what generations will you produce as a university professor?

What you are doing is the most dangerous judicial corruption in Lebanon, given that all the files of financial corruption and the recovery of the stolen money are under your authority, so we do not see any hope of fighting corruption or a criminal investigation or any financial reform while you are in your position. We do not talk about politics here, but we have seen the Ministry of Finance heresy and recent sectarian considerations, as if what the "Shiaa" have accomplished on through you – and you belong to the camp of the (Shiaa) house speaker – as if your accomplishments are overwhelming!

I hereby, address The Head of the Higher Judicial Council, Judge Sohail Abboud, for the last time, who in turn has witnessed a number of cases that were manipulated by the Financial Attorney General in which any hope for accountability were aborted. I tell you that it is no longer sufficient just to invoke a powerful intervention as a wish in the face of this exceptional situation reached by the judiciary. Either you move on and embark upon painful reforms, or step aside to not crush the hopes of the Lebanese people who see you at the top of the judiciary.

finally, I renew my appeal to the President of the Republic as the guardian of the constitution, if he has any serious intention of change and reform, to intervene and stop all this charade. Let any opposition be cast aside, especially after our problem has become the judiciary itself instead of having it holding the criminals accountable. Had no effective steps been taken with regards to this the judiciary shall turn to be the target of the revolution in a last effort to avoid a total downfall.