The Ministry of Justice in Beirut. (Credit: PHB)
Lebanon's courthouses will remain paralyzed for the rest of this week, following a decision by court officers on Saturday to extend their strike, which began on Feb. 1.
"Rather than being enough for the whole month, our salaries don't even cover five days," stresses a statement issued by the court officers' committees on Saturday. "As the satisfaction of our demands is constantly being postponed [by the government], under the pretext of examining the value of the amounts to be allocated, we have decided to continue our strike until Friday, Feb. 16," the statement added.
The civil servants had hoped last week to see the government meet their demands, but the government meeting on Saturday failed to satisfy their expectations.
With the extension of their strike, all courts – criminal and civil – tribunals and public prosecutor's offices continue not to function. No requests or judicial formalities – presentation of complaints, conclusions of parties to trials, etc. – can be submitted to the clerks' offices, due to a lack of manpower. An exception is made for procedures submitted by the last day of the legal deadline.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.