A group of Lebanese lawyers, who are also activists in the group The People Want To Reform The System, filed a lawsuit directly before the criminal judge in Beirut.
This lawsuit is against the Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, for the alleged crimes of Articles 319, 320, 359, 360, 363, and 373 of the Penal Code.
Basically, this includes: undermining the financial position of the state, breaching job duties, job negligence and default, investing a public job, and committing fraud and gross wrongdoing in the management of money belonging to a public person.
These lawyers are Hasan Bazzi, Haitham Ezzo, Jad Tohme, Joseph Wanis, Pierre El-Gemayel, Francois Kamel, Bassel Abbas, and Journalist Joey Haddad.
Lawyer Haitham Ezzo emphasized that those responsible for the wrong financial engineering must bear the consequences of “the economic collapse and the social imbalance resulting from the collapse of the national currency.”
“This lawsuit is a necessary step in this direction,” Haitham Ezzo said, “It is the first step in facing the banking sector that abused people, especially the poor.”
Interestingly enough, a new phenomenon is just emerging on the Lebanese scene that is trembling with revolts and crises:
Lawyers from the people and for the people are going after prominent officials with lawsuits. Just recently, lawyers filed a lawsuit against MP Jamil El-Sayyed for inciting to kill protesters.
We do get to wonder whether this is indeed a phenomenon that will continue or these two occurrences are just random. Have the people of the revolution moved into using the law in their fight for a better Lebanon?
The days ahead will tell.
