One of the most prominent files that Judge Aoun has dealt with since the start of the economic collapse in Lebanon in the fall of 2019 is the prosecution of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his brother and son in October 2019 on charges of “illicit enrichment” by obtaining subsidized housing loans.
The Disciplinary Council of Judges decided to dismiss the Public Prosecutor in Mount Lebanon, Judge Ghada Aoun, from service, based on claims submitted by those affected by the measures she took, and for violating the instructions of her superiors, according to a judicial source told AFP Thursday.
Aoun’s name has been popularized over the past few years after it was claimed against prominent officials, bankers and employees involved in major corruption files, according to the decisions issued by it.
However, her loyalty to the outgoing President of the Republic, Michel Aoun, made her work subject to criticism and controversy, after her actions affected political parties that were generally at odds with the former president.
The judicial source said, “The Disciplinary Council for Judges, headed by Judge Jamal Al-Hajjar, took a decision to dismiss Aoun from work.” It is an appealable decision.
The council’s decision came based on a decision issued by the Judicial Inspection Authority, based on “several lawsuits filed against Aoun by those affected by the measures she took with several files, and for violating the decisions issued by the Supreme Judicial Council and the instructions of its presidents,” according to the same source.
Aoun was summoned to the Palace of Justice, where she was informed of the decision to dismiss her.
“I am not afraid of anyone, even if they want to kill me!”
In her first comment, Aoun said, “I am not afraid of anyone, even if they want to kill me!”
Commenting on this decision, Representative Jamil Al-Sayyed wrote in a tweet that he posted on Twitter: “The Disciplinary Council of the Judiciary decided to expel Judge Ghada Aoun based on “numerous complaints before the judicial inspection”… In the moshbarah, I say that if Judge Aoun had been Shiite, Sunni or Druze, no one would have dared to touch her. With it … and I say obituating, the judiciary eliminated itself.”
Among the most prominent files that Aoun has dealt with since the start of the economic collapse in Lebanon in the fall of 2019 is the prosecution of caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati and his brother and son in October 2019 on charges of “illicit enrichment” by obtaining subsidized housing loans.
And in January 2021, she sued the Governor of the Banque du Liban, Riad Salameh, and an official at the Central Bank, on charges of “functional negligence and breach of trust.”
Then, in early 2022, it issued a decision banning him from traveling on the grounds of a complaint filed against him by a group of activists accusing him of financial mismanagement. On March 17, 2022, his brother Raja Salameh was arrested on the basis of a complaint filed by activists against the two brothers on suspicions of embezzlement and money laundering.
The Lebanese journalist, Edmond Sassine, wrote: “The judiciary has returned to be fair, fighting corruption, recovering public money, and imprisoning Hadry money, persecuting Riad Salameh and the bank mafia, and recovering the people’s deposits, with the disciplinary council’s decision to dismiss Judge Ghada Aoun, who dared to file an integrated system that has become internationally prosecuted. The distrustful judiciary falls. More disgraceful than unfair.
Riad Salameh repeatedly refused to appear before Aoun, considering that her pursuit of him comes in the context of a “systematic process to tarnish” his image, stressing that “a judge cannot be an adversary and a judge at the same time.”
Aoun repeatedly rebelled against decisions issued by judicial authorities, including the Supreme Judicial Council. She insisted on continuing the investigations into the files, despite her hand holding them back.
Despite the criticisms of her work, human rights activists saw the decision to dismiss her as a “disgrace” in the history of the judiciary in Lebanon, a country based on nepotism and sectarian balances, and where politics interferes even in judicial appointments.
The Executive Director of the Legal Agenda, Nizar Saghieh, said that whoever issued the disciplinary decision against Aoun “did not pay any attention to the investigations it conducted in the largest corruption cases,” considering that the decision “will remain a stigma in the history of judicial disciplinary councils.”
