Activists demonstrate against domestic abuse, rape and sexual harassment in Beirut on Dec. 7, 2019. (Credit: Anwar Amro/AFP)
BEIRUT — Alleged serial harasser Jaafar Attar attended a court session Thursday morning with his lawyer, who requested an adjournment of the session for the second time to review evidence.
Here’s what we know:
• Last month, a court session was adjourned until April 14 after the Attar’s lawyer asked for copies of the evidence. “Attar’s lawyer asked to review CDs of evidence available at the court for the investigation, which were then prepared in a file but the lawyer did not pick them up before this morning’s session for being uninformed [of the readiness of the files],” Ayman Raad, the victims’ lawyer, told L’Orient today.
• He added that the session is adjourned till July 14, with the possibility of submitting a request to advance the date of the hearing.
• “The defendant's lawyer requested an adjournment of today's hearing for the second time. Obvious evasion. The accused is represented by more than one lawyer, and each lawyer claims upon arrival that he is not aware of certain items in the file, and requests an adjournment in order to review them,” tweeted journalist Luna Safwan, a victim in the case.
• Attar’s trial was due to take place in November at the Beirut Justice Palace, but was postponed due to a court employees' strike.
• A group of seven victims filed a lawsuit against Attar in May 2021. The police had already opened a criminal investigation before the lawsuit and, last September, the public prosecutor formally charged Attar with sexual harassment and referred the case to the criminal court in Beirut.
• This is the first case to be tried under Lebanon’s new sexual harassment law, adopted in January 2021.