The head of the Free Patriotic Movement, Gebran Bassil. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra/File photo)
BEIRUT — The Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) issued a statement Wednesday accusing caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati of “taking advantage of the presidential vacuum and acting as if the constitutional system of government is complete in the absence of the head of state.”
"[Mikati’s] latest heresy is that his incompetent government has convened to settle exceptional decisions made previously to generate constitutional and legal chaos," the statement said. "His most remarkable legal innovation was to send a letter to the Minister of the Interior asking him to take the necessary measures for the proper course of justice, as if he were a minister of justice. This means that [Mikati] is asking [the Interior Minister] for a clear intervention in the security services to stop the work of the judiciary.”
Caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi ordered security forces on Wednesday not to implement the decisions made by Mount Lebanon's Public Prosecutor, Ghada Aoun, who launched legal proceedings against several banks in recent days.
Mawlawi issued the order after Mikati sent him a letter on the matter. According to a press release from Mikati's office, the letter asked Mawlawi to take "appropriate measures based on the current circumstances" regarding Aoun's proceedings.
Afterward, Judge Aoun took to Twitter to accuse Mikati of "interfering" in the work of the judiciary. In a tweet written in French, she launched an "urgent appeal to international bodies and the European Parliament."
According to Aoun, Mikati "is blatantly interfering in justice in order to stop the investigations that I am conducting in the case of banks and money laundering, in defense of the rule of law."