Three Beirut port employees arrested for bribery

Accused of corruption, three employees from the operations directorate of the Beirut Port, A. Q., A. K., and M. B., were arrested by State Security on the instructions of the financial prosecutor.

A statement released Tuesday by the Directorate General of State Security said an investigation by their security service led to these employees being charged with “soliciting and extorting bribes” from customs brokers responsible for declaring goods and organizing the payment of customs duties.

According to the statement, these brokers said they had been “victims of extortion and obstruction” of their procedures by the employees in question, with the aim of “forcing them to pay sums of money without any right.”

The three employees admitted, on their part, to receiving money in exchange for facilitating and speeding up the brokers’ procedures, and in some cases, exempting them from paying port fees owed to the public treasury. Financial Prosecutor General Maher Cheaito initiated proceedings against them on Monday and referred them to Beirut’s first investigative judge, Roula Osman, a judicial source told our publication.