Activists from Noun demonstrate In front of the interior ministry. (Screen grab from video on Noun’s twitter account)
BEIRUT — A dozen activists from the Noun association organized a series of sit-ins in Beirut Wednesday to denounce the security and judicial provisions former minister Ali Hassan Khalil is using to dodge an arrest warrant he received in connection to the Beirut port investigation.
Here’s what we know:
• Noun group members, who are all women activists, circulated on social media videos of their sit-ins in front of the courthouse, the Interior Ministry and the house of Internal Security Forces Director General Imad Osman.
• The group accused Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, General Osman, and lawyer at the Public Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Cassation, Judge Imad Kabalan, for not serving the arrest warrant on Khalil, who is close to Nabih Berri.
• Two weeks ago, Judge Kabalan informed the security services of the arrest warrant issued by the Beirut port probe judge Tarek Bitar against Khalil. However Kabalan made implementation conditional upon Parliament being out of session.
• The parliamentary session began on October 19 and will end on December 31. Kabalan therefore decreed that Khalil could only be arrested after 31 December and before the start of the next parliamentary session, scheduled for March 21. He argued that the Public Prosecutor's Office does not have the power to put conditions on a judge's decision.
• This warrant was the second issued by Judge Bitar against Khalil, the first having been served on October 12. That warrant was not served, though Parliament was not in session at the time.