Touch building affair: Jarrah and Sehnaoui defend themselves after Court of Audit’s decision

BEIRUT — Two days after the Court of Audit’s decision to require four former telecom ministers to pay more than $35 million in compensatory damages for real-estate decisions deemed costly to public funds was made public, former telecom ministers Nicolas Sehnaoui and Jamal Jarrah reacted on Thursday, challenging the ruling’s conclusions.In 2023, the Court of Audit’s Second Chamber had published a special report examining a series of violations attributed to former telecommunications ministers Sehnaoui, Boutros Harb, Jarrah, Mohammad Choucair, Talal Hawat, and Johnny Corm. In earlier reports Telecoms Corruption: The Court of Audit report nails six ministers According to the Court’s decision, the violations concerned two major real-estate files: the rental of the Kassabian building in Chiyah, for which the public mobile operator MIC 2...