One of the cranes installed at the container terminal at the Port of Tripoli. (Credit: Philippe Hajj Boutros/L'Orient Today)
North Lebanon Investigating Judge Jocelyne Matta last week took charge of a case involving alleged fraud by customs officials at the Port of Tripoli. They are suspected of facilitating the evasion of customs duties to the detriment of the state by allowing goods to enter that were declared as weighing 50 tons when in fact they weighed 100.
The case was referred to Judge Matta by financial prosecutor Maher Cheaito, who about twenty days ago had the president of the Port of Tripoli, Azzam Kanj, and the head of Tripoli’s regional customs, Pascale Elia, arrested.
According to Al-Jadeed, the two officials are implicated in authorizing the entry into the country of five containers, which security services checked upon exit from the port and found to contain 100 tons of goods, though customs had declared only 50 tons.
Cheaito also arrested a shipping agent and a customs inspector at the same time. According to our information, these two people, along with Kanj, are being prosecuted for forgery — a crime — while Elia is suspected of professional negligence — a misdemeanor.
It is presumably for this reason that after receiving the case, Matta ordered her release on bail, but the Court of Accusation rejected her decision and kept Elia in custody.
Having based itself on the Al-Jadeed investigation, the judiciary asserts that the fraud involved the weight and resulted in tax evasion corresponding to the declared weight. However, a judicial source told L’Orient-Le Jour that the goods in question (shop equipment, toys, etc.) are not taxed by weight but rather through a flat rate.
According to this source, weight is not at issue, because in this particular case, any violation related to weight does not cause a financial loss for the state; the penalty would be negligible. The infraction would rather lie in false declarations about the conformity between the actual quantity (number of units) of goods checked and what was declared by importers, as well as the assertion that these goods were effectively inspected, when in reality they may have been only partially checked.
This source stated that a proper inspection would require unloading all the units, a process that takes several days of work, while in this case, verification was completed in just a few hours. Such false statements are considered crimes under the law, as they constitute the forgery of official documents.
There appear to be challenges in pursuing the investigation, the above source noted, pointing out that the containers in question left the Port of Tripoli in 2023. How, then, can the courts continue investigating goods that are no longer accessible?
According to our information, Matta is continuing her inquiry in any case. She has submitted a request to the Directorate General of Customs — which oversees the Port of Tripoli — for additional information. She is now awaiting a response.
