Under the title « What future for Lebanon? And the role of the Europe, an Union in advancing human rights in Lebanon », a conference was held on Tuesday evening at the European Union headquarters in Brussels, attended by European deputies, judges and officials, for supporting Omar Harfouch, the Leader of the Third Lebanon Republic initiative, who suffers from a political repression and Judicial because of his fight against corruption in Lebanon.
The conference was held at the invitation of a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Lucas Mandel, and the most prominent figures who attended the meeting were the Public Prosecutor of Mount Lebanon, Judge Ghada Aoun, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, Andre Petrojev, a member of the French Senate, Natalie Gaulier, and the founder of « Sherpa » lawyer William Bourdon, in addition to Representatives from various European countries.
Claude Monique considered that Harfouch was subjected to an organized plan that was unfair and without the right to put him in prison by any means, and asked the European Union to intervene to cancel the arrest warrant against Harfouch, considering that the charge against him by the Prime Minister of Lebanon personally did not give him the right to defend himself according to the law, especially since the content of the lawsuit is civil and not criminal, and the accusations against him that he was with Israelis or Jews under the roof of the European Parliament is an insult to the European Union because it is the only place where all nationalities and religions meet.
Claude Moniquet called the European countries to protect Harfouch from the political-judicial targeting he is exposed to in Lebanon, to cancel the arrest warrant issued unlawfully, and to impose European sanctions on all politicians and judges involved in the Harfouch case. The issue of sanctions will also be on the table of the European Union next September to vote on this law for approval.
For his part, lawyer William Bourdon, who returned from a visit to Beirut, spoke about the fight against corruption in Lebanon, and how the crimes committed by the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, and the funds that were frozen in Europe, which he personally supervised, were exposed.
Bourdon revealed that the coming days will bring unpleasant surprises to some politicians involved in corruption and money laundering cases.
The intervention of Judge Ghada Aoun was under embargo on her demand who spoke about the corrupted judges in Lebanon and that without real justice the state of Lebanon would not exist, and considered that what Harfouch is exposed to is the best evidence of the existence of corruption in the judiciary.
In turn, Harfouch touched on his case in the military court, especially that the court moved against Harfouch with superficial considering being in the same place with an Israeli journalist in 2004 is passed over the time, and the reason is that Harfouch fights corruption and exposes many scandals and files.
It is noteworthy that Harfouch did not mention during his speech the prime minister, Najib Mikati, or the first investigative judge in Tripoli, Samaranda Nassar who are doing a real unjustified war against him. When asked about the reason for not mentioning them, he said that he did not want to use the European Union platform to score points, and that those present talked about the issue and the result will come on conclusions.
But the point that aroused the attention of the audience was when Harfouch touched upon what Judge Aoun, lawyer Wadih Akl and Harfouch were subjected to, in terms of parallel political and judicial campaigns in terms of timing and source, because the trio were the ones who most confronted the corrupt in Lebanon, so the system wanted to get rid of them in any way.
The session came a week before the European Parliament voted on a decision regarding Lebanon and the possibility of including sanctions against officials in it who are related to corruption or those who protect the corrupt and a possible resolution in next September, after it was debated during the plenary session a week ago in Strasbourg and the case of Omar Harfouch was mentioned publicly and officially during the session, which is likely to be mentioned on the European decision itself.
