Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil is interviewed by L'Orient-Le Jour's Anthony Samrani (not pictured). (Credit: L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — A Florida court issued its final ruling Monday, dismissing a lawsuit filed by two US-based plaintiffs against Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader Gebran Bassil.
According to an FPM statement released Thursday, the American court dismissed the case due to "illegality" and declared that it "lacks jurisdiction."
In January 2022, the Lebanese government was notified of a US civil suit against politicians Gebran Bassil and former justice minister Salim Jreissati. In the suit, two US-based plaintiffs alleged Bassil and Jreissati conspired to kidnap and torture them.
Lara Mansour and Elie Samaha allege that Bassil and Jreissati worked together with Mansour's relatives to deprive her of a valuable inheritance. They claim the relatives lured them to Lebanon, where they were detained by the Lebanese government in harsh conditions in a bid to force the two to drop lawsuits to recover the inheritance.
A US court subsequently ruled that the dismissal of their suits was coerced and reinstated the lawsuits.
"Bassil will claim before the competent judicial authorities for the severe damages that he suffered as a result of these false allegations," the FPM statement said. "Once again, the truth triumphs and we shall always work for the truth every time they try to hide it with lies and slander ... Bassil had proven before the Lebanese judiciary the falsity and invalidity of all the allegations that were made against him in this matter, and therefore all the slanders that were marketed by many in Lebanon and the world in order to inflict political harm on him fell [short]."
Bassil was sanctioned by the US in 2020 for alleged corruption.
Contacted by L'Orient Today, a US embassy spokesperson declined to comment.