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Ghassan Oueidat vs Ghada Aoun: The arm wrestling resumes


Ghassan Oueidat vs Ghada Aoun: The arm wrestling resumes

Ghassan Oueidat and Ghada Aoun. (Credit: NNA)

Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Ghassan Oueidat filed a lawsuit on Monday against Judge Ghada Aoun, the public prosecutor at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, following a lawsuit brought against her on Wednesday by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

Judge Aoun had last week tweeted an image containing a list of names of Lebanese officials, including Berri and his wife, claiming they hold multibillion dollar bank accounts in Switzerland that have allegedly been frozen by the United States.

Oueidat’s lawsuit is based on charges of “inciting sectarian dissension and discord between the components of the nation, defamation and abuse of power.”

The case comes shortly after the expiration of President Michel Aoun’s term in office, with whom Judge Aoun is reputed to be close, and who has an fractious relationship with the Parliament Speaker.

This is not the first time Oueidat has taken legal action against Judge Aoun. In April 2021, he suspended her from financial crime-related cases, following her prosecution of Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh, and her high-profile raid of the premises of Mecattaf Holding Group, a major foreign exchange business. Aoun subsequently submitted a referral against her superior’s ruling before the State Shura Council to nullify his decision, but it did not decide on the case.

For its part, the Higher Judicial Council (HJC), the highest administrative body in the judiciary, referred Judge Aoun to the Judicial Inspection Board for not respecting Oueidat’s decision. She was also reproached for not complying with professional confidentiality terms and not appearing before the prosecutor at the Court of Cassation to explain the alleged offenses she committed.

To date, nothing has come out of the Judicial Inspection Board's investigations, which are still being conducted under the seal of secrecy. In addition to the criminal complaint, Judge Aoun is targeted by a complaint before the Judicial Inspection Board, which Berri’s lawyer filed on Monday.

In her tweet last week, Aoun asked “to what extent is the information on the list true,” while calling on those involved to disclose their accounts, “for the sake of transparency.” However, soon after the prosecutor deleted the document, which was declared false more than three years ago when it was wrongly attributed to WikiLeaks, in May 2019.

Dismissal request

Aoun did not appear for questioning yesterday before the head of public prosecution, mandating a lawyer, Pascale Fahd, to appear on her behalf. At the end of the hearing, Fahd said she filed a motion before the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation to remove Oueidat from the case.

She argued that Article 346 of the Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that a complaint against an appellate prosecutor must be filed before the plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation, not before the prosecution at the Court of Cassation.

According to the lawyer, the public prosecutor's office therefore does not have the jurisdiction to deal with Berri’s lawsuit.

However, the aforementioned article states: “Where the misdemeanor is attributable to a Public Prosecutor at an Appeal Court …, he shall be prosecuted by the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Cassation of its own motion or on the basis of a complaint from the aggrieved party. The case shall be tried before the full bench of the Court of Cassation.”

Ali Rahal, Berri’s lawyer, based on this text advocates the opposite of Fahd’s claim. “The Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Cassation has the jurisdiction in this case. It is up to it to transmit the file to the plenary assembly,” he told L’Orient-Le Jour.

It should be noted that lack of quorum has prevented the 10-member plenary assembly of the Court of Cassation from meeting since January, following the retirement of six of its 10 members. These members have not yet been replaced because the caretaker Finance Minister Youssef Khalil is blocking the draft decree shuffling judges within the Court of Cassation, under sectarian-related pretexts.

Meanwhile, the question begs: do the interim judges chairing the chambers of the Court of Cassation have the jurisdiction to consider this lawsuit against a prosecutor at the Court of Appeal?

Speaking to L’Orient-Le Jour, a senior judge said he does not have the answer, and noted that such a lawsuit is “unprecedented.”

“We will have to wait until tomorrow [Tuesday] or the next few days to know what the HJC will decide,” he said.

Old enmity

As another reason for the motion against Oueidat, the appellate prosecutor’s lawyer pointed to “the enmity between the two parties, against the background of measures taken against Aoun by Oueidat in other cases and the prosecutor’s referral targeting him before the State Shura Council.”

Outside the Justice Palace, Fahd told the media that her client had “no criminal intent.” According to her, the moral element of the offense does not exist. “Ms. Aoun published the document without accusing anyone. She gave the opportunity to those mentioned in it to prove their innocence and that the information published is wrong. She wrote that she did not know if it was true,” she said.

“Whoever filed a lawsuit against me today [yesterday] has no right to do so,” Judge Aoun wrote, for her part, in an evening tweet. “My crime is to have called for the application of the law to lift banking secrecy,” she said. “If this continues, you will only see your money again in your dreams,” she warned depositors.

“Ghada Aoun knows perfectly well that this is a false list,” retorted Berri’s lawyer. “She must take responsibility for having published false information,” he said.

Complaint of Myriam Skaff

Rahal also referred to “an incitement to national discord.”

“As the head of the legislature represents hundreds of thousands of citizens, it was feared that the tweet would generate reactions and upheavals that would have led to a battle within the country,” he said.

Although Judge Aoun was quick to withdraw her tweet, the damage was already done, Berri’s lawyer said. “Her fault has caused moral damage to those concerned,” he said, arguing that such an act is tantamount to slander.

It is this same feeling of offense that prompted Myriam Skaff, widow of the former MP and minister Elie Skaff, who was named in the falsified list, to bring a similar action against Aoun.

“How does a senior judge allow herself to share on social media false information relayed by electronic armies?” she said. “How does she accept to spread such rumors without verifying their veracity?” Skaff asked.

“Claiming that I have an account frozen by Washington implies an insinuation from her that there are suspicions about me,” she said. “Her tweet puts doubts in the collective unconscious and therefore seeks to damage my reputation,” she said.


This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translation by Joelle El Khoury.

Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation Ghassan Oueidat filed a lawsuit on Monday against Judge Ghada Aoun, the public prosecutor at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, following a lawsuit brought against her on Wednesday by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.Judge Aoun had last week tweeted an image containing a list of names of Lebanese officials, including Berri and his wife, claiming they hold...