The Director General of Lebanese Customs, Badri Daher. (Credit: National News Agency)
On Tuesday, Beirut’s acting first investigative judge Bilal Halawi issued five arrest warrants against former Customs Director Badri Daher for failing to appear before him.
Halawi is investigating cases of “illicit enrichment, neglect of duties and the organization of an auction contrary to the rules in force,” a source at the Justice Palace told L’Orient-Le Jour. The source added that these cases have no connection with the Beirut port explosion case.
Although Daher is still implicated in the port explosion case by Investigative Judge Tarek Bitar, former Top Prosecutor Ghassan Oueidat released him and 16 other detainees in January 2023.
A few years ago, investigative journalist Riad Kobeissi used video evidence to accuse Daher of having rigged an auction at which goods seized by the Customs were sold. Daher denied this allegation, as well as others of a similar nature.
After being implicated by Former First Investigative Judge in Beirut Charbel Abou Samra for lifting a travel ban on a Saudi prince caught smuggling Captagon, the ex-boss of the Customs was found not guilty by the Beirut indictment chamber in October 2022.
Under the law, an implicated person, or the lawyer representing him, may request that the investigative judge grants them time to present pro-forma pleas. In this case, a session was held on Jan. 30 where this request was submitted to Judge Halawi, who accepted it. However, neither Daher nor his lawyer appeared at the hearing scheduled for Tuesday to present pro forma pleas.
“The judge has the legal power to issue an arrest warrant in absentia against the former civil servant, because he had notified him of Tuesday’s hearing during the session that was held Jan. 30,” said a lawyer on condition of anonymity.
While sources close to Daher did not deny that he was notified, they said that it about a hearing set for May 7, 2024, and not last Tuesday. However, they added that Judge Halawi brought forward the date of the hearing to Tuesday without notifying Daher.
“This is impossible,” said the above-mentioned lawyer. “A judge who is well known for being professional, as Judge Halawi, can in no way bring forward a hearing date without having notified the person concerned.” “Even if, for whatever reason, a court bailiff did not manage to notify Badri Daher, the notification should be done by posting, as the law stipulates,” he added, stressing that “in such a case, the arrest warrants have a legal basis.”
This article was originally published in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translated by Joelle El Khoury.