Member of the Strong Republic bloc, MP George Okeis, tweeted: “What is happening in Adliye “Justice Palace” today, will leave deep wounds in the judicial body. A mixture of abuse of the right, defiance, threat and personalization. The victims of what is happening: the martyrs of the port explosion who are being deliberately re-killed today, and justice, or the embryo of justice that aborts in the womb of hope for a new homeland.”
It is reported that there was confusion in the judiciary regarding Judge Tariq Bitar, and the mechanism of appointing Judge Habib Mezher, and the combining of the two files, the file of Judge Tariq Al-Bitar and the one of Judge Nassib Elia.
In the details, when the defense attorneys for the former minister, Youssef Fenianos, submitted a request for suspending Judge Bitar, on that day, Elia, who is the head of Chamber No. 12 in the Civil Court of Appeal, considered that he had previously given an opinion in a similar case, and therefore, he would not be able to decide on this case. At that time, the first president of the Court of Appeal, Judge Habib Rizkallah, answered that the two lawsuits submitted by Ministers Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zuaiter are separate and independent, so Judge Elia can decide on Minister Fenianos’ lawsuit.