Safadi questioned over corruption case by Judge Ali Ibrahim

Lebanon caretaker Finance Minister Mohammad al-Safadi told reporters at the Justice Palace that he handed over documents to the Financial General Prosecutor Judge Ali Ibrahim during a hearing on Thursday and that he does not have any other session planned with him, MTV reported on Thursday

“I have answered all questions and have presented documents to back my case ,” Safadi said following the one-hour-twenty-minute hearing session at the Justice Palace.
He did not reveal the type of documents that he presented to the judge.

An-Nahar reported last week that Ibrahim was set to summon Safadi and caretaker Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi, following their war of words over the Beirut airport road floods that took place last week.

The financial prosecutor initiated an investigation after Safadi and Aridi exchanged accusations over corruption and the respective work of their ministries.

Aridi accused the Finance Ministry, and Safadi in particular, of disrupting his ministry’s work, including its preparedness to address flooding.

He also called Safadi a thief and accused him of embezzling state funds.

Safadi, in turn, said that all accusations against him are unfounded, and are “a political campaign par excellence.”

Following the hearing Judge Ali Ibrahim charged MEAS company with negligence and vandalism in the case of Beirut airport road floods.

MEAS , Middle East Airports Services is the contractor in charge of maintenance of the Beirut airport roads.

Aridi resigned

Judge Ali Ibrahim summoned Aridi over the corruption scandal last monday following which Aridi announced his resignation from the cabinet of caretaker PM Nagib Mikati and decided to take a break from politics.

Aridi briefed Judge Ibrahim on the details of a press conference he made earlier this month in which he accused Safadi of withholding funds from his ministry for road maintenance in an effort to pressure him into approving a construction violation by the finance minister.

Aridi informed president Michel Suleiman about his ( resignation) move , prompting the president to voice his consensus over the matter, but Aridi failed to mention the matter to his colleagues at the Progressive Socialist Party, according to a report by al-Joumhouria newspaper .

PSP sources told al-Joumhouria that Aridi’s decision came as a surprise to everyone in the party as the resigned minister didn’t inform any of his fellows at the party about his decision.

“We didn’t have any prior knowledge about Aridi’s intention to step down, we heard about it during his press conference,” a PSP official told the newspaper.

Head of PSP, MP Walid Jumblatt, later rejected Aridi’s decision.

Jumblatt said that “Aridi belongs to a party and is not free to act on his own as he desires.”