Beirut's Justice Palace. (Credit: NNA)
BEIRUT — Having been on strike since mid-August 2022 to demand a readjustment of their salaries, Lebanese judges will resume their activities gradually, a source at the Lebanese Judges Association confirmed Thursday to L'Orient-Le Jour. However, this source did not give a precise date for the judges' resumption of work.
The judges' decision comes after a general assembly on Dec. 28, which resulted in promises of new financial aid from the judges' mutual fund — a decision endorsed by the Ministry of Finance. The move pushed the judges to suspend their protest movement, after months of total paralysis of judicial activity in a Lebanon mired in economic collapse since 2019.
Salaries increased fivefold
"With the new aid promised to judges, the salaries of some magistrates should now be multiplied by five," the aforementioned source told L'Orient-Le Jour.
Also on Thursday, the Higher Judicial Council called in a statement for judges "to resume work in all courts, as far as possible and in accordance with the discussions of the general assembly of judges, on 28/12/2022."
"The Higher Judicial Council, which supports the judges' demands and works to achieve them despite the difficult circumstances, calls on the judges to resume their activities. The Higher Judicial Council will continue to work to meet these demands," the text continued.
With the depreciation of the Lebanese lira, the monthly salary of many judges is now worth only around $100. With the Lebanese state in full collapse, much of the public infrastructure, including courthouses, can no longer be maintained and have become unsanitary. Some judges reported that they had to pay for their own office supplies, while their offices and courtrooms wnet unlit due to lack of electricity.
