Gebran Bassil during a speech in Ain al-Tineh on June 10, 2024. Photo taken from Gebran Bassil’s X account.
Lebanese MP Gebran Bassil, head of the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM), revealed on Saturday via his X account that he had presented last week to the parliamentary inquiry commission overseeing the telecommunications dossier a “black file” related to the sector, stating that he “had already submitted it to the competent judicial authorities back in 2009.” He added that “the file has received no follow-up, despite our repeated calls.”
“This file contains violations and evidence of more than one billion dollars in waste, and it is accompanied by official documents and proof,” he continued. He expressed hope that “the parliamentary inquiry commission will take charge of this file in accordance with its prerogatives.”
Last July, Lebanese MPs referred three former Ministers of Telecommunications to a parliamentary inquiry commission, accused of squandering public funds, in a case that first emerged in 2019 during the widespread protest movement. One of the three former ministers, current MP Nicolas Sehnaoui, is a close ally of Bassil, while the other two are Jamal Jarrah and Boutros Harb.
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