View of part of the public maritime domain in Zouk Mosbeh, affected by the State Shura Council's decision. (Credit: Legal Agenda)
The State Shura Council recently annulled a Cabinet decree that authorized a private company to occupy nearly 70,000 square meters of the public maritime domain in Zouk Mosbeh, in Kesrouan, to build a tourist complex.
The company, Dream by the Sea, obtained the authorization in 2018. The company is majority owned by Dany Khoury, an entrepreneur close to the Free Patriotic Movement.
Greenline and Nahnoo, two associations active in environmental protection and defending cultural heritage, immediately challenged the decision by filing a petition.
They submitted the petition in collaboration with the legal firm Legal Agenda, led by Nizar Saghieh. Legal Agenda held a joint conference on Thursday, Dec. 4, with Ali Darwish and Mohammad Ayoub, the presidents of the two associations, at the firm’s headquarters in Badaro.
The speakers stressed the importance of the ruling in the fight against what they called a system of encroachment on maritime land.
They also reiterated the need for a model of a public beach open to all citizens rather than a coastline treated as spoils for a minority who benefit from political clientelism and the division of shares.
In the Oct.23 decision, which L’Orient-Le Jour was able to review, the Shura Council, chaired by Fatima Oueidat and also composed of Asmahan Khoury and Hendy Zaiter, recognized the standing of the two associations to bring the case and emphasized the exceptional nature that must characterize any use of the public maritime domain.
Saghieh described the decision as historic, first because it is the first time a decree authorizing the occupation of maritime land has been annulled, and second because it affirms the standing of environmental associations to challenge such an authorization.
Saghieh recalled that in 2021, the State Council chamber, then made up of different magistrates, refused to recognize the direct interest of the two associations in a similar petition.
That petition challenged an authorization the government had granted by decree in 2018 to the company Al Hiba Real Estate, issued at the same time as the one for Zouk Mosbeh.
Al Hiba Real Estate, whose main shareholder is Jihad al-Arab, close to the Future Movement, received permission to develop roughly 70,000 square meters on the Naameh beach in Damour (Chouf district).
The terms matched those given to Dream by the Sea, including permission to build a complex with a private marina, a jetty, a restaurant, a sports club and other facilities.
Saghieh said the two decrees violated the law that bans permanent construction.
He also noted that they ignored the negative opinion of the Higher Council for Urban Planning, the principle of the unity and continuity of the coastline and the rule that limits occupation to one year, renewable only with the tacit consent of both sides.
The authorization for the Naameh project lasted three years. The one for Zouk Mosbeh lasted one year and renewed automatically once the company paid the annual amounts owed, which granted Dream by the Sea an acquired right to renewal regardless of the administration’s consent.
Reversal
Four years after rejecting the petition against the decree concerning the Naameh coastline in 2021, the Shura Council has now reversed course by issuing a decision in favor of the associations.
The ruling follows the spirit of a report presented in 2020 by Lama Yaghi, a member of the Council, who had been responsible for reviewing the Naameh decree.
In that report, the judge affirmed both the standing of the associations to challenge such decrees and the need to annul them.
But the judgment at the time was issued by a majority formed by the president and the other member of the chamber, who refused to recognize that standing.
The new chamber, chaired by Judge Oueidat, also relied on the law on environmental protection of 2002, which states that every person must safeguard the environment and report any danger that threatens it.
The chamber also stressed the need for an environmental impact study before issuing any decree authorizing occupation of the public domain.
Saghieh called on the Public Works Ministry to implement the judicial decision immediately by clearing the 70,000 square meters in question.
He also urged the government to annul the authorization to occupy the Naameh site and to recover the land under the principle of the precarious nature of such occupation, which gives the administration the power to cancel its authorization for the public interest, and under the principle of equality before the law, especially since the situation mirrors that of the Zouk Mosbeh beach.
Ali Darwish, the president of Greenline, lamented the resumption of work on the Naameh project after a halt of several years and blamed the state for the destruction of the coastline. As for the Zouk Mosbeh project, work has not yet started, Saghieh said.
Saghieh also noted that there are 1,199 cases of encroachment on public maritime land. According to Mohammad Ayoub, the president of Nahnoo, these violations cover 10 million square meters, or 80 percent of the Lebanese coastline, causing the state to lose several hundred million dollars in revenue.
This article was translated from L'Orient-Le Jour by Sahar Ghoussoub.
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