Marcel Ghanem Interrogated as Protesters Brave Rain to Show Solidarity

Prominent TV talk show host Marcel Ghanem on Thursday appeared before Mount Lebanon First Examining Magistrate Nicola Mansour in connection with a controversial episode of his Kalam Ennas show, as protesters braved heavy rain to express solidarity with him outside the Baabda Justice Palace.

Ghanem’s lawyer, MP Butros Harb, meanwhile filed procedural defenses that were accepted by Mansour and the session was adjourned to February 2.

The solidarity rally was attended by Information Minister Melhem Riachi and Education Minister Marwan Hamadeh, Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel, the MPs Nadim Gemayel, Ghazi Aridi and Nabil de Freige, ex-MP Fares Soaid, a Progressive Socialist Party delegation, and a number of political, syndical and press figures.

“There is a political plan to muzzle voices and Marcel and LBCI are being targeted to pass on the message,” Harb said after the interrogation, stressing that “Lebanon will remain the country of freedom.”

Ghanem for his part thanked “everyone who came to express solidarity despite the rain.”

“They came to say no to repressing free speech and we will always stand by free speech,” Ghanem added.

“Our battle will continue and no one will be able to intimidate us. We will never be lenient in the battle for freedoms in Lebanon and we will not let the blood of those who were martyred for freedom go in vain,” Ghanem vowed.

A subpoena had been issued on December 14 for Ghanem to appear before the judiciary.

According to LBCI, Harb's procedural defenses argue that Ghanem's prosecution “is not based on a legal text.”

Harb had warned that “accepting such type of prosecution would mean accepting the eradication of freedoms in this country.”

Ghanem is accused of hosting Saudi journalists who branded the Lebanese president and parliament speaker as "terrorists" during one of his show's episodes.

“I'm not supposed to defend anyone. I'm a talk show host. I don't regret what I did on air and I only managed the episode. What is my crime?” Ghanem had recently said in an interview with Al-Arabiya television.

Justice Minister Salim Jreissati has said that Ghanem was only supposed to give his testimony and that no lawsuit would be filed against him.

Jreissati had asked the country's prosecutor general to launch an investigation against the two Saudi journalists who appeared on Ghanem's Kalam Ennas talk show, one of the most watched weekly TV programs in Lebanon.

The minister wrote in a two-page letter to the prosecutor that the two men, Ibrahim Al Merhi and Adwan al-Ahmari, had engaged in libel against top officials including President Michel Aoun and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.

The move came at a time when tensions were very high between Lebanon and Saudi Arabia over the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri, announced from the Saudi capital Riyadh.