“The Kataeb Party adheres without any reservation to the principle of accountability and equality before the law, whatever the issue is, and rejects in this context all the methods resorted to by both Hezbollah and the Amal movement to destroy the investigation into the Beirut Port Blast,” said Sami Gemayel, the head of the “Lebanese Kataeb Party.”

“The Lebanese recall Hezbollah’s obvious warning to use all of its capabilities to disrupt the investigations and the court Judicial Investigator including the Tayouneh case, must be understood in this perspective,” he continued.

“The Kataeb Party’s position on the necessity of strengthening the judiciary’s independence and not surrendering to the security and political blackmail that Lebanon is subjected to is a solid, clear, and consistent attitude,” he said.

He continued: “As for the military court, the Kataeb Party has repeatedly demanded the dissolution of this exceptional court, and submitted a proposal to amend the Military Judiciary Law and limit its powers to the military, due to the selectivity with which the military judiciary deals with civilians, its failure to respect the conditions of prosecution and fair trial, and its summons and targeted arrests. The military judiciary is often the repressive arm of police regimes that the Lebanese have resisted and won every time.

“It is difficult to persuade any outsider that what is happening again through the military judiciary, including the summoning of the head of the “Lebanese Forces” party, Samir Geagea, is in reality nothing more than a failed attempt to create a bargaining chip to destroy the investigations i.e. what the Secretary-General of Hezbollah and his assistant Wafiq Safa did about a direct threat to Judge Bitar,” Gemayel concluded.