Attorney General for the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, Ghada Aoun, before the Beirut courthouse on May 4, 2023. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient Today)
BEIRUT — The disciplinary hearing for Judge Ghada Aoun, Attorney General at the Mount Lebanon Court of Appeal, has once again been postponed due to a lack of quorum, according to her attorney Maya Geara.
Geara, who is also a member of the Calibre collective advocating for Lebanon’s "free judges," confirmed to L'Orient-Le Jour that Aoun showed up at the Beirut Palace of Justice for the hearing, which was then rescheduled due to the Council missing one of its five members, and therefor not meeting quorum.
The hearings conducted by the High Disciplinary Council are confidential, but some of the reasons for there being proceedings against Aoun are publicly known: highly publicized raids of the headquarters of the cash courier company Mecattaf, carried out in the presence of numerous supporters of the Free Patriotic Movement; refusal to comply with a June 2021 decision by former Attorney General Ghassan Oueidate to remove her from cases linked to financial crimes; breach of judicial confidentiality; and failure to respond to summonses from the Court of Cassation.
Aoun had previously been summoned for a hearing before this body on March 22, during which she immediately filed for the dismissal of Souheil Abboud, president of both the Supreme Judicial Council and the disciplinary court. Her hearing, initially rescheduled for April 15 and then April 29, was deferred due to her refusal to appear before her appeal was addressed.
One of her claims against Abboud is that he previously considered removing her based on Article 95 of the judicial organization law, which allows the Supreme Judicial Council to declare a judge "incompetent" after a hearing without trial or the right to appeal.
In solidarity with Aoun, activists staged a solidarity sit-in on Thursday night outside Judge Abboud’s house in Balloune, Keserwan, north of Beirut. The protest of around a dozen people was organized by groups like “Our Money is Ours,” which advocates for the recovery of illegally blocked bank deposits, and “Calibre,” which supports "independent judges."
Protesters praised Aoun's work, calling her a "brave judge" who is being "harassed for opening files and conducting investigations" into corruption cases "involving influential people".
In March 2022, Aoun brought charges against former Banque du Liban Governor Riad Salameh and arrested his brother Raja in March 2022. She also targeted several Lebanese banks, banning their CEOs from traveling and freezing their assets.
Three days ago, Aoun appealed to international bodies via a social media post to "protect the rule of law in Lebanon," citing the right to a fair trial as enshrined in international conventions and the Declaration of Human Rights. She subtly criticized Judge Abboud, referencing "a judge with the highest judicial office," and his willingness to "prosecute another magistrate because she dared to challenge influential people."
This article was originally published in French on L'Orient-Le Jour.