Hajjar forwards cases against Megaphone, Daraj and Kulluna Irada to Public Prosecutor's Office

BEIRUT — Public Prosecutor Jamal Hajjar transferred the cases against Kulluna Irada lobby group as well as media outlets Daraj and Megaphone to Beirut Court of Appeal Prosecutor Ziad Abi Haidar on Monday, according to judicial sources who spoke with L'Orient-Le Jour.

Kulluna Iradah, Daraj and Megaphone, who have been calling for reforms to Lebanon's barely functional banking sector, all stand accused of “attempting to destabilize the financial system."

Judicial sources said Prosecutor Hajjar forwarded the KI case to Judge Abi Haidar on Monday, and the case against the two media outlets on Wednesday.

The notice concerning Daraj and Megaphone was filed by three lawyers, Elie Chahla, Joseph Zeidan and Georges Moussalli, and outlines accusations against them of destabilizing the national economy, undermining confidence in the local currency, inciting the withdrawal of bank deposits at the start of the economic crisis in 2019, the sale of government bonds and receiving suspicious foreign financing.

These are the same accusations leveled against UNO Kulluna Irada, already the target of a hostile campaign in some media, on social networks and circles of opinion close to the banking sector. The request to open an investigation against KI was also filed by three lawyers, Bachir Aazan, Charles Assaad and Jocelyne Karam, acting in a private capacity.

The notice accuses the organization of “overstepping its statutes to engage in political action since 2021” and of attacking the national economy “by undermining confidence in the Lebanese financial markets,” which have been decimated by mismanagement and corruption among Lebanese authorities.

In a statement published on its website on March 13, KI rejected all the accusations “which have gone as far as personal attacks against its members.”