Head of the Cases Committee at the Ministry of Justice, Judge Helena Iskandar, issued the following explanatory statement:

“On January 17, 2022, the lawyers of the Lebanese state submitted a letter to the president of the commission informing her of their decision to stop practicing their duties, due to the low value of their monthly wage of two million Lebanese pounds, one third of which is considered as a transfer allowance, and because of the lack of response to their request since 2017 to increase their wages, And as they did not benefit from the social assistance given to the employees of the public administration, as well as from the increase in the transportation allowance from eight thousand to 65 thousand pounds.

The president of the commission submitted, on the same date, their letter to the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Justice and Finance, proposing that they benefit from social assistance, an increase in transportation allowance and an increase in their monthly wage, due to the expenses they incur during the exercise of their duties, by assisting the head of the commission in defending the interests the Lebanese state, and in light of the high prices of printing papers and fuel oil, so that they are now incurring expenses from their own money, especially since their number does not currently exceed sixty lawyers.”