Judge Ghada Aoun during a search of the premises of the Mecattaf company, in 2021. (Photo by Marc Fayad)
BEIRUT — Public prosecutor at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal Ghada Aoun submitted on Wednesday an appeal to the Indictment Chamber against the decision to release the former director general of the road traffic department, Houda Salloum. The request of Salloum's release was issued on Wednesday by investigating judge Ziad Dghaidy.
Salloum, along with dozens of her colleagues, had been arrested last November as part of an investigation into suspected corruption in the country's vehicle registration centers.
In his ruling on Wednesday, Judge Dghaidy referred to the length of Salloum's pre-trial detention and said that it had already lasted a long time. Ghada Aoun replied in her appeal that according to the law, acts such as those committed by Salloum are punishable with detention of up to 6 months, renewable once. In this case, the 6 month detention period ends in May and can be extended until November.
Aoun supported her appeal before the Indictment Chamber of Mount Lebanon by citing statements made by several officials in the investigation, all of which said that Salloum required them to "pay amounts in cash or ounces of gold through a broker," whose name she mentioned.