Medications on shelves in a pharmacy. (Credit: AFP archive photo.)
BEIRUT — After weeks of unconfirmed rumors, a case involving financial fraud and drug smuggling — allegedly linked to the former sister-in-law of a senior Amal movement MP Ali Hassan Khalil — saw its first arrest on Tuesday night: the husband of the suspect, M.F., who is a General Security officer and Khalil's brother.
In a statement, Khalil denied any connection to the case, adding that the suspect is also his brother’s ex-wife.
The arrest was confirmed Wednesday morning by a judicial source to L’Orient Today. It was carried out by the Financial Crimes Bureau, on the orders of Dora al-Khazen, Acting Prosecutor General at the Financial Prosecutor's Office.
Khazen is leading the investigation, using the information in question as a basis for public action, a senior judicial source told L'Orient Today on Tuesday. The source added that the case involves "suspicious commercial activity" amounting to "several tens of millions of dollars."
Irregular medicine importation through Beirut airport
According to another source, M.F. partnered with another woman, Z.C., in a company that imported drugs irregularly through Beirut airport. This company is said to have operated in other sectors, such as clothing trade, detergents, shoes, furniture, food products, etc. Prosecutor Khazen sealed the company's premises on May 24.
For several years, the two partners allegedly defrauded many people by offering them substantial interest rates or promising quick profits in exchange for investments in their business activities. Some of these creditors were aware that these activities were illegal, others were not. Several have already filed complaints against the two associates.
The main suspect on the run in Georgia
Z.C. is currently in Lebanon, but to date, the justice system has not been able to summon her for interrogation. As for M.F., she is "outside Lebanese territory," indicated the judicial source, while media reports claim that she is in Georgia.
According to our information, the financial prosecutor's office has heard from several witnesses as part of its investigations, including former collaborators of M.F. Upon completion of the investigation, the prosecutor could refer the case to the Mount Lebanon prosecutor's office, which will in turn forward it to the first investigating judge of Mount Lebanon, Nicolas Mansour.
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In a statement, MP Khalil, former finance minister and right-hand man of Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, denied any link to the case.
The case is related to "my brother's ex-wife and her relationship with him. We would like to emphasize that this is a legal case that concerns them exclusively," he wrote. "We have no connection with what is being broadcast, and we have no professional relationship with the people mentioned. We categorically reject any attempt to implicate our name in this case," the statement added.
He also called for "allowing the judicial process to take its natural course, applying judicial measures and decisions rigorously, without any intervention or influence," and rejected "rumors about pressure on the judiciary."
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.
