A Lebanese soldier in the Palestinian camp of Burj al-Barajneh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut, on Aug. 21, 2025. (Credit: Mohammad Yassine/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Walid Joumblatt, former head of the Progressive Socialist Party, questioned on Wednesday the circumstances surrounding the arrest of former Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon Ashraf Dabbour.
"Why was Palestinian Ambassador Ashraf Dabbour arrested? Are the Lebanese authorities, or some within them, carrying out orders from Ramallah to settle internal scores within the Palestinian Authority?" Joumblatt wrote on X.
Dabbour was placed in provisional detention on Monday by the Prosecutor General at the Court of Cassation, Ahmad Rami al-Hajj, after more than four hours of questioning, according to several local media outlets. He had previously been arrested and released in late April following an Interpol notice issued over corruption allegations raised by the Palestinian Authority.
The prosecutor general's office "is preparing a detailed report on the corruption charges against Ashraf Dabbour, which will be submitted to the Lebanese authorities so the Cabinet can decide whether to extradite him to the Palestinian Authority," the news website al-Modon reported Monday.
The outlet also reported that Dabbour's legal team was expected to submit "a series of documents" Tuesday and Wednesday to prove his innocence. The prosecutor's office is expected to wait for the Cabinet's decision on a possible extradition before initiating judicial proceedings in Lebanon. According to local media, Dabbour was transferred to a hospital Wednesday after his health deteriorated.
Dabbour served as the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon from 2012 to 2025 before Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas replaced him with Mohammad Assaad. He is being prosecuted by the Palestinian judiciary on charges of corruption, illicit enrichment, money laundering and breach of trust.
According to a Palestinian source who spoke to L'Orient-Le Jour last April, tensions between Dabbour and the Palestinian Authority date back several years, with the former ambassador known for challenging decisions made by his superiors.
In 2025, Abbas sent his son, Yasser Abbas, to Beirut to oversee the management of land and real estate sales belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon. In late November, Dabbour accused Yasser Abbas on Facebook of taking control of the PLO's historic headquarters in Beirut's Mazraa district.
On July 31, President Joseph Aoun received a Palestinian delegation led by Yasser Abbas. According to a statement from the presidency, the talks focused on the disarmament of Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, a process launched in August 2025 under an agreement signed in May that year between the Lebanese and Palestinian presidents.
The initiative has remained controversial. At the end of the meeting, Aoun reiterated the need to uphold the Lebanese state's monopoly on arms throughout the country.
