Former Judge Bassam Mawlawi has been appointed as Interior Minister in Lebanon’s new cabinet. Here’s what you need to know about him.
As a judge, Minister Mawlawi presided over Beirut’s Court of First Instance and headed the North Lebanon Criminal Court.
He was the first judge in Lebanon to hold a virtual hearing in the history of the North Governorate, which he did during the pandemic-induced lockdown that affected courts across Lebanon.
Notably, Mawlawi was recently accused by MP Jihad Samad of being allegedly involved in the Eden Bay scandal during his time at the Court of First Instance in Beirut.
The case in question involved the addition of properties to the said project, which Samad described as “the biggest attack on Beirut’s waterfront, and a distortion of the most beautiful beach in the eastern Mediterranean, the beach of Ramlet Al-Baida!”
He was nominated for the Interior Minister position by Future Movement President and former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, in the new Lebanese government that was formed by PM Najib Mikati on Friday.